Grimm Mother
by QAI521
Summary: The Heberts were passing through Ellisburg on the day of Nilbog's attack. And now, as one rises from the ashes of loss and death they learn that in order to fight a monster, one needs better monsters.
1. Witchcraft

**I've decided that I'm going to start cross posting my work from Spacebattles onto this site to gain a wider audience.**

 **Enjoy!**

Witchcraft

 _The mission had gone to hell._

That was the one thought that dominated the forefront of Lieutenant Emily Piggot's mind.

When the local PRT office of Ellisburg had sent a memo that a new Master class Parahuman had revealed himself the main branches took notice but didn't really do anything. Ellisburg was a relatively small town with a one or two minor villains and heroes. It didn't boast anything of real importance and had no signs of any major problems in the past, not like the cities of Detroit or Brockton Bay. It was assumed that the local heroes and PRT would be able to sort through the problem without outside interference.

It had only been when all communication with the town had been cut out that the greater PRT realized something was seriously wrong.

She had been part of one of the two squads consisting of nearly forty non-powered individuals assigned to investigate the town and if possible subdue the new cape. They were all trained in tactics to take down a variate of capes, from Brutes that could hurdle cars like toys or Blasters that could level buildings. With the twenty capes, they got as support going in it should have been a simple, easy mission.

It had been anything but.

The self-proclaimed Nilbog proved to be far, _far_ deadlier and more powerful than they could have ever had imagined. With an army of monsters at his command, he had torn through most of the two squads and sent the cowardly heroes running. What few survivors remained were left to fend for themselves in a city that was something straight out of a Hollywood horror film.

Piggot tried to focus on keeping her legs working as she ran down the abandoned streets. While she had her service pistol in one hand, her other hand was occupied with keeping the pressure on her injured side. She could feel warm crimson fluids slip through her fingers with each passing second, her physical exertion only worsening her already bad wound. She knew that the best thing to do would be to stop moving and keep the wound from being aggravated, but her situation didn't allow for such actions.

A quick glance back only confirmed her fears, her pursuers were still chasing her and worse, they were gaining.

They were unholy amalgamations of cats and dogs. The front of the creatures was obviously canine in origin, but they had been horrifically disfigured. Their mouths had been permanently set into what might charitably be called a smile if one was drunk enough. Their eyes were enlarged to the point of ridiculousness, but it did little to take away from the sheer revulsion of the creatures' greasy furless skin. The back half the creatures were no less terrifying or disgusting.

It looked like someone had taken the front end of a cat and stitched it into the spot of the dog's rear. Its own features had been horribly disfigured like their front side. Eyes, ears, teeth, everything that had once been natural had been taken away and put through a madman's imagination. The creatures' hide legs hadn't even been switched so they were facing the right way. Instead, the front of the creatures seemed to drag their lower body parts everywhere, which was the only reason she hadn't been overwhelmed by the pack of nightmarish composite animals yet.

But even with their apparent sluggishness, they were still gaining on her. With her huge wound taking its toll it would only be a matter of time before they caught up to her and she would be torn to shreds by their vicious fangs or worse, she would be dragged off to join Nilbog's ranks as one of his demented goblins.

Her brief lapse in focus was all it took for her to miss a chunk of loose rubble from one of the nearby buildings. She stumbled forward as she tried to regain her balance, but her wound flared in protest at the sudden movement and she was forced to the ground by the pain. She turned around to see the pack of monsters had finally caught up to her, their fangs jutting out of their maws like rusty nails as they stalked forward with the deliberateness of a hungry predator.

She aimed her pistol and fired. The first beast flinched, apparently recognizing the sight of a gun, but that was all it did. Piggot felt whatever hope of getting out alive leave her body as the gun simply clicked, the ammo spent from fending off other monsters. The apparent leader of the pack snarled angrily as it approached the fallen PRT agent, its glassy eyes glinting in the noonday sun.

Piggot tried to pull herself back from the creature's waiting mouth, but it was a futile effort at best. The monstrous canine-cat hybrid opened its jaws while Piggot steeled herself for the pain to come.

Then the creature exploded into chunks of viscera and blood. Piggot gagged as the off green fluid covered her face. As she wiped the foul liquid from her eyes she got her first good look at her savior, and whatever burgeoning hope she felt for a rescue died.

The creature towered over her and the pack of goblins. Even standing up she would have barely reached the monster's lower jaws. Fur darker than the darkest nights covered the creature's form. The creature's pitch black fur was only interrupted by plates of bone like armor whiter than chalk. Spines of bone the size of her forearm trailed down the creature's back and arms, only fueling its inhuman appearance. Claws the size of her fingers erupted from far too human hands as the creature growled. It was a low rumble that reminded Piggot of wolves that she had seen in zoos or particularly large dog breeds.

 _Dangerous. Predator._ Her hindbrain seemed to whisper to her.

 _ **Run**_ _._

The pack of goblins seemed to be taken back by the new monster's appearance. The took a step back in obvious surprise, but they recuperated quickly. One of the hybrids leaped forward, jaws wide and ready to tear out the interloper's throat.

The creature moved faster.

The creature became a near blur of black and white to Piggot's stinging eyes as she struggled to remain awake. She could feel her blood loss was starting to catch up with her, but she wasn't going to let herself fall unconscious. If these beasts wanted her they were going to have to fight her.

The sound of flesh tearing from flesh brought Piggot's full focus back to the events before her. The goblin that had attacked was now dead, the new monster having ripped its head off. It had been joined by two more of its kind, smaller, but no less deadly if the dead goblins beneath them were any indication.

Piggot felt her breath catch in her throat as the creature turned around to face her. The upper portion of its long skull was covered by a single bone plate. Red lines that looked like fresh blood ran up and down the plate. Teeth the size of daggers filled the creature's maw, each one caked in a layer of greenish fluid. But it was its eyes that caught her attention the most.

The creature's yellow eyes glowed like a pair of twin stars. They seemed to strip away her layers and gaze into her very soul. Despite herself, Piggot let out a small whimper at the sight of the creature's burning gaze.

 _ **RUN**_ _._

Her hindbrain was screaming at her now, her flight and fight instincts going into overdrive as the creature started to approach her. She tried to drag herself along the concrete to escape the reach of the creature, but she only made it a few feet before the creature caught up to her. Piggot screamed in panic as the creature's hand-like paw wrapped around her ankle and pulled.

"Let me go!" She shouted desperately as she kicked her feet against the creature's hands in an attempt to extract herself from its grip. Her kicking proved to be futile, however, as the creature's only reaction was to tighten its grip and pull harder.

Piggot could feel the effects of the blood loss start to catch up to her as she was dragged across the broken street. She could feel her chest tighten in pain as black spots started to appear in the corner of her eyes.

"No," she tried to shout, but all that came out was a hacking cough. As the last of her vision started to fade her heart raced at the thought of becoming one of those…those _things._

Her free leg twitched again in another attempt to free herself and then the embrace of Morpheus took her.

* * *

 _"…stabilized…"_

Piggot moaned as the pain hit her. She felt as if she had just gone a couple rounds with Behemoth. But that was okay, pain meant that she wasn't dead.

 _"…blood loss…"_

She could hear voices at the edge of her awareness. Her hearing strained as she tried to listen, but they sounded so far away.

 _"…she's lucky she survived."_

 _"When will she wake up?"_

Piggot felt a jolt of recognition pass through her. She knew that voice, that was her commander's voice!

Piggot tried to open her eyes, but it was as if they were made of solid rock. It took her far longer than she would have liked to get them open. Her vision was still blurry, but she was still able to make out her immediate surroundings.

The fact that she wasn't surrounded by monstrous nightmares or a giggling madman as he turned innocent people into piles of flesh was a good start, but it didn't put her completely at ease. For all she knew this was some sort of illusion or trap for Nilbog to bring in new meat from the outside world. The PRT wouldn't abandon their agents to a madman if they thought there was a snowball's chance in hell of getting them out alive.

The Protectorate on the other hand…

Piggot pushed aside her feelings of betrayal and focused on the situation at hand. She could get angry at the so called "heroes" for abandoning her later, right now she needed to figure out if she was safe.

A flash of movement caught her eye and Piggot twisted her head around to get a good look at it. She immediately regretted it as her vision spun and her head felt like it was a lead weight. Still, once the feeling of nausea passed she got a good look at one of her fellow agents talking with a man she wasn't familiar with.

"Tony," she croaked, her voice sounding far weaker than she would have liked it to sound. It wasn't the voice of the well trained PRT officer who had once gone toe to toe with monsters that could level city blocks, it was the voice of a weak woman who couldn't even move her own body without feeling sick.

Agent Tony Jones' head snapped over to her, his green eyes flashing in concern and relief. Now that she had a good look at him she could see that his arm was in a sling and a rather large bandage was wrapped around his waist.

"Emily," he responded as he walked over, his relief at her awareness obvious in his voice. He stood over her prone form on what Piggot now recognized as a hospital bed but kept enough distance so that it didn't feel as if he was looming. His presence was a welcome shock to an otherwise alien environment. She could feel her muscles relax a little bit, not entirely, but enough to take some of the strain off her shoulders. "You're alright."

It was obvious that she wasn't, but she knew what he meant. She tried to pull herself up but found herself being gently but firmly held down by the stranger. She glared at the man in an attempt to get him to back off, but the man's blue eyes met her own without flinching. He had a broken and haunted look in his eye that Piggot knew she was going to have in her own for quite some time. It was the look of someone who had seen hell and survived by the skin of their teeth and had lost something on the way. A glare from an injured woman wouldn't frighten this man after what horrors he had borne witness to.

"You've had a bad injury, you need to stay off your feet," he said, not unkindly. He was clean shaven, unlike the wild mess of a beard Jones' had. His hair was mostly brown but had a few gray hairs creeping their way in. He was vaguely toned, but Piggot felt that if she was in good health she would be able to take him without any issue.

Unfortunately, she _wasn't_ in good health and she knew it. She acquiesced to the man's demand with a grunt of displeasure she let herself settle back onto the padded seat. "Alpha-six-tango-gamma-three," she rattled off from memory. The stranger gave her a perplexed look, but her commanding officer understood.

"Beta-one-gamma-eight-delta-nine," he said as he gave her the relevant Master/Stranger protocol response. Piggot let her guard relax a little bit as she looked at the stranger with a little less suspicion than before. At the very least she knew that if this was all some sort of trap then whoever had set it up had subverted Jones or her own memory so completely that she wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and reality.

"Sorry doc, protocol," Jones said with an apologetic tone.

The man grunted, apparently understanding that whatever they were talking about was above his pay grade. Instead of commenting on it the man turned to her with a severe expression on his face. Piggot could feel her muscles tense up, but her fears of being attack were swept aside once he started to speak.

"You were very lucky ma'am," the man said in a soft but firm tone. Piggot twitched at being referred to as ma'am but decided not to ream the man out- this time at least. "Had you not been brought to medical attention sooner you could have very well bled out."

Images of monstrous maws dripping with blood and gore flashed through her mind. Jones gave her a concerned look as she flinched, but she waved him off. She could deal with a few nightmares.

"I was able to replenish most of your blood and close the wound, but I'm afraid your kidneys are beyond repair. Even if had had access to better medical equipment it would still require a full transplant," the man said apologetically.

"What's that mean in English, Doc?" Jones asked as he tried to hid his concern. He did an admiral job at keeping a neutral mask, but his fidgeting gave away his true emotions. The man gave Jones an irritated look at the use of "doc" but cleared his throat as he explained.

"Without your kidneys, your body won't be able to process the toxins that build up in your body. Eventually, the toxins will become too much and kill you," the man explained in a controlled but not unkind way. Piggot appreciated the matter of fact way that he told her how she was going to die, it was a relief compared to the bone-chilling terror of waiting for one of Nilbog's monsters to chow down and finish the job.

"How long do I have?" she asked.

The man shrugged, "If you manage to stay off your feet and avoid exertion you probably would probably last a few days without treatment. We managed to gather some medicine on the last supply run, but without a dialysis machine that would be a stalling action at best."

Piggot felt her hand clench up in anger at the knowledge that that bastard was likely to get the last laugh. Even after she managed to escape his monsters she was still going to die by his hand.

"…thanks Doc," Jones said, his voice subdued.

The doctor sighed regretfully. "I'm afraid that there is nothing more that I can do. If you excuse me I have other patients to check on." Without another word the man stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him with a soft click, leaving the two PRT agents alone.

"Where are we?" Piggot asked. Now that she actually had a chance to take in the surroundings it was painfully obvious that this wasn't a hospital. The irritatingly bright shades of pink and yellow plastered across the walls didn't match with the dull sterile white that she had come to associate with hospitals.

There was a desk that had been moved to the side in order to make room for the hospital bed that she was lying on, and it appeared that the windows had been boarded shut. Piggot doubted that a few pieces of wood would stop Nilbog's monsters, but she supposed that it was better than nothing.

"Elementary school on the outskirts of Ellisburg," Jones said as he shifted himself into a more comfortable position to talk as he leaned against the wall. Piggot's eyes were temporally drawn towards a cartoonish rendition of the human body that had cheesy little phrases plastered across it. The childish image looked alien and odd in an area that had been debased with so much death. "Some of the folks managed to get down here and barricade themselves in before Nilbog got them. Though without Cadmus' help I doubt they would have survived."

"Cadmus?" Piggot asked sharply, not recognizing the name. It sounded like a cape name, but it wasn't one that she recognized. She knew the names of every single one of the capes that the Protectorate had paired the PRT up with for this mission, a fact that she was going to exploit without mercy if she ever got out of this hellhole. If she had her way those people would never wear a mask again, they were a complete and utter disgrace to law enforcement. Jones' expression soured, clearly recognizing where her mind had gone. Piggot knew that Jones was usually a fairly relaxed man, but there was a dark look in his eyes at the mere thought of this Protectorate capes. His jaw moved back and forth before he relaxed a little, some of his tension easing from his shoulders.

"She's the reason that we survived. She triggered during Nilbog's first attack on the town and summoned creatures of her own," Jones explained. Piggot winced, while she wasn't a parahuman herself, she understood the implications of triggering and knew all too well how traumatic some people might have found this massacre. What she had seen had scarred her, she couldn't begin to imagine how an untrained civilian would fare in such a situation.

"She's been using her creatures to hold of Nilbog's army and to try to contact the outside world," Jones said as he slumped against the wall, his form looking utterly drained. "But until they come get us were stuck here, even with her help we wouldn't be able to evacuate all the survivors safely."

"How many?" Piggot asked. She had a fair amount of experience in logistical matters, maybe she could help figure out a way to help, bedridden as she was.

"About three hundred civilians," Jones said with a grimace. Piggot couldn't help but mirror his expression, three hundred out of five thousand was barely a six percent survival rate. It also added the nightmarish fact that for every organic body Nilbog got his hands on, the more monsters he could make. Piggot couldn't even begin to imagine what over forty-five hundred monsters were capable of.

"What about agents," Piggot asked, thought she could tell that she was already going to hate the answer. Jones' haunted and faraway look did nothing but spurn her fear and dread even more.

"Three, including us," Jones whispered, his voice barely audible. Piggot felt her heart stop for a moment. She knew that the answer would be bad, but to actually know that only two of her teammates had survived was gut wrenching.

"Who?" Piggot asked, her throat dry.

"Thomson," Jones replied, his face mirroring her own pain. There was a small spark of relief at Jones' answer. Thomson had been one of the squad commanders and was good at his job, at the very least they had a competent leader at the helm. But it also meant she would have to deal with Jenny's irritatingly perky attitude, Ralph's exaggerated tales of his combat prowess or Carlos' pranks even again. She couldn't say she would miss that slime ball, Calvert, that much, but he had died fighting for his country which was something that she could respect.

"…how long until reinforcements arrive?" Piggot asked after a long moment of silence to digest what her comrade had just told her.

Jones snorted scornfully as he shifted his position against the wall. "Unless Cadmus' runners manage to get out there they aren't any coming."

Piggot's head shot up. "What?" she asked, not quite believing what he was saying.

"You heard me," Jones growled with an uncharacteristic anger. "Our radios are busted and the cell towers in the area are down, we have no contact with the outside world. As far as they rest of the world is aware we're all dead."

Piggot could feel a soft chill travel up her spine at the implications. A parahuman this powerful would get carpet bombed if they thought that the threat was great enough, just like they had with Kid Rot in 1999. A little over three hundred people would die in fire and flames in order to stop a single madman.

Piggot found she couldn't blame her superiors if they decided to strip bomb the city if allowed to expand Nilbog could very well prove to be one of the greatest threats the world had ever seen since the Endbringers. But she still couldn't help but feel a growing dread as she considered her burnt and broken form as one of the causalities. Her life had been saved only to be doomed again.

"I want to meet her," Piggot said. Jones gave her a confused look, his brain not clicking the details together. "Cadmus," Piggot explained, a spark of understanding and recognition entering the man's eyes.

"The doc told you not to exert yourself," Jones said, a hesitant expression on his face. He knew that once Piggot had set her mind to do something there was very little that could stand in her way.

"My health doesn't matter if we're going to get bombed into oblivion," Piggot said, eliciting a flinch from the man at the reminder of their possible fate. Piggot rolled her eyes at her teammate's uncertain gaze. "If it bothers you that much then find me a wheelchair."

Jones, apparently realizing the futility of trying to reason with her, grunted as he rose from his seat and walked out the door. As the door clicked shut behind him Piggot allowed her head to rest against the rather uncomfortable pillow that had been placed beneath her neck. The tiled ceiling stared back down at her.

With nothing better to do, she started counting.

* * *

Piggot was almost finished when Jones returned. As the door swung open Piggot pulled herself up a little, wincing as her side lit up on fire at the sudden movement. She managed to hide her pain from Jones' eyes, but it still did little to dull the agony.

"…that's the best you could do?" Piggot asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jones scowled. "It's not like this is the Ritz, we don't have a lot of options here."

The seat in question wasn't a wheelchair, but rather a rolling desk chair that had clearly been stolen from one of the teachers. It was short and had a busted wheel, but like Jones said, they didn't have a lot of options to choose from.

Jones pulled the chair closer to her bed and then Piggot began the laborious task of pulling herself onto the seat. She could feel her side flare up in sheer agony as she swung her way onto the floor, her footsteps mere hobbles as she tried to keep herself from collapsing. She grunted in relief as she took her seat. It was hardly the most comfortable seat that she had been it, but it was better than trying to walk all the way there.

Jones grunted as he started to push the chair, going slowly as to avoid losing course. The chair's design and the busted wheel didn't make steering easy, especially with Piggot dead weight and Jones' broken arm.

As they wheel through the building Piggot was able to get a much better idea of the situation. The entire atmosphere was one of hopelessness and suffering. Men, women, and children with long faces and faraway looks as they stared into nothing. People huddled in groups in an effort to shield themselves from the monsters outside. Everything looked straight out of a disaster movie, which was exactly what this was- a disaster created by a madman.

But what got her the most were the monsters.

She nearly had a heart attack as one of the towering beasts circled a hallway corner. It was so large that the tips of its back spines scrapped the surface of the ceiling, gouging a mark along its path. It's glowing red eyes glared out at the world as a miasma of dark surrounded its form like a blanket.

"Emily calm down," Jones said as the beast passed by, not giving them even giving them a passing glance. Piggot heard Jones' command but wasn't able to comply as the beast slid past her form, its fur brushing up against the armrests of her chair. She flinched at the foul smelling odor of the beast, the metallic smell of blood latching onto the beast's form.

"Emily it's one of Cadmus' creatures, it isn't going to hurt you," Jones said in a calming and placating tone as he pushed the chair around the corner and out of the creature's sight. Not that it had cared about them, but not having to stare at the creature had a clear effect on Piggot. Her near panicked breathing even out as she regained control over her nerves.

"You okay," Jones asked.

Piggot nodded shakily. "Y-yes, I'll be fine," she said with a confidence she hoped that she would be able to feign.

 _The feeling of flesh being torn by teeth as sharp as knives._

 _Blood splattering across the ground._

 _Pain_ _Pain_ _Pain_ _Pain_ _Pain_ _Pain_ _Pain_ _Pain_

Piggot flinched at the fresh and recent memory of her experience with monsters, one that she couldn't hide from Jones.

"We can do this later if you want," he said.

Piggot shook her head. "There might not be a later. I can handle this, it…it just caught me by surprise."

It was a lie, but one that Jones had the decency not to call her out on.

Piggot swallowed as Jones resumed pushing her towards their final destination. "Are there more?" she asked.

Jones paused as the reached a pair of doors, the screeching of the broken wheel on the floor stopping as he considered the question.

"Yes."

* * *

As the doors opened to what Piggot could now recognize as the school's gymnasium, she could see that yes, there were more monsters.

A lot more.

What had once been a spotless wooden floor where children could play basketball or indoor soccer during the winter was covered in pits of black tar. They were dark murky things that made the hairs on her arms stand up as she looked into their reflectionless surface. She held back a flinch as the pit bubbled and moved as something _pulled_ its way out of the dark mass.

Tusks that looked like they could tear a person in two oozed their way out of the pit. A mockery of a boar followed shortly after, its head and shoulders covered in white armour as hooves clicked against the wooden floor. Fangs that looked straight out of a prehistoric documentary jutted down from the monster's upper mouth with dagger-like teeth following behind. Piggot swallowed as four red eyes glared at her as the monster waddled its way past the two PRT agents.

All around them more monsters were crawling their way out of the black masses that dotted the room and each one was different and horrifying in their own way. Birds of prey whose wings looked like they could be used as buzz saws, serpents that looked like they could swallow a man whole.

While they didn't possess the same disgusting and misshapen appearance of Nilbog's mockery of life, they were still no less terrifying.

Piggot managed to pull her gaze away from the creature long enough to catch sight of her commanding officer. Thomson was standing over a cheap fold out table that had once likely been used for school events. Now, it was being used to try and save hundreds of lives. As they drew closer Piggot could see that they had a few maps detailing the city laid out before them with marks to indicate locations of Nilbog's forces or supplies.

Thomson's gaze drew up from the maps, apparently alerted to their presence by the squeaking wheel of the chair as it scraped against the surface. The man's brown eyes glinted with intelligence and vigor despite the bandages around his torso. Even with his slightly graying hair, he still cut an imposing figure at almost six feet tall with broad shoulders and a well-muscled physique.

"Piggot, Jones," the near mountain of a man rumbled, his voice tinted with relief. Despite the gruff personality, he portrayed himself as it was well known that he cared a lot about his team. The loss of nearly the entire team had to be hitting him hard, though if it was he wasn't showing much of it.

"Sir," Piggot and Jones replied in unison. Piggot's gaze traveled away from her superior and to the other person standing around the table.

She was a bit shorter than Thomson, but she was still quite tall, and probably would have towered over Piggot by a good head even if she had been standing. But that wasn't the most defining feature of the woman.

Her skin was whiter than bone and chalk. Red veins crisscrossed along her arms and around her eyes like a twisted jigsaw. The sclerae of the woman's eyes were pitch black, even darker than the pits that the monster had been born from. Irises as red as blood burned into Piggot's very souls while pupils emptier than a black hole glared at her.

Hair as deathly white as her skin messily spilled across her shoulders without care, but Piggot supposed in a war zone that beauty became the least of a person's worries.

"Piggot," Thomson rumbled as his gaze tracked her own. "This is Cadmus."

"That's what the people call me," the woman interrupted, speaking for the first time. Her voice was angry, but there was a hidden agony underneath as if merely existing pained her. The speaking produced a notable effect on the monsters, their movements became more energized, more hurried.

"I prefer my real name," the woman said. "Annette Hebert."

* * *

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	2. The Beginning

**Enjoy!**

The Beginning

Annette Hebert eyed the woman before her with a critical gaze. She looked rather pathetic, with a bandage wrapped around her side, the white fabric stained with crimson blood. She was a far cry from the PRT agents that were always on the media with their shining uniforms and reflective visors they wore that always gave them an aura of invincibility. They were those who fought the villains at the doorstep, not with powers but with human ingenuity and training. They were the heroes of the common people, a hero that one could emulate and eventually become.

She supposed that reality would always fall short of the façade. This was a woman who had been broken by the monsters, the dark and untamed glint in her eyes as she eyed Annette, a sign of her fear. The shaking of her body as she passed by more of her Spartoi as they pulled themselves from their spawning pits only made her state of distress more visible. The man pushing her makeshift wheelchair looked better, but only a little bit. His arm was hung in a sling while a few scratches on his forehead reopened, faint trickles of dried blood running down his face.

"I see," Piggot said with a neutral expression. Despite her clear discomfort of the situation, there was a calculating gaze in the woman's eyes as she roamed her form. While she had left before Lustrum's movement had started castrating men, she had still taken part in the odd brawl or two. She knew when someone was eyeing an opponent for a fight. Not that it would do the woman much good with the strength she now possessed.

 _Green fluids ran down her face as she tore the monster's jaws open with her bare hands. The creature's surprised and fearful expression was forever frozen on its monstrously inhuman face as she cried out in anguish and rage. Her scream was raw and uncontrolled and totally alien to her as the monsters cowered underneath her burning gaze._

Annette clenched her hands, the only sign of her discomfort. She couldn't afford to fail, not when so many were depending on her.

Not when she had already failed too many.

If the woman noticed the strain in her fists she didn't comment on it. She turned her gaze back towards the Spartoi climbing out of their respective pits. An eight-legged monstrosity shook the excess tar off its armored form like a dog shaking off water. Mandibles that looked as though they could sheer steel in half clicked together as the creature took stock of its surroundings. Legs the size of a man skittered across the floor with a surprising dexterity for a beast its size as six red eyes glared out at the world around it with an almost unspeakable hatred.

It was somewhat…concerning how much emotion the beasts actually felt. It was a blinding hatred that consumed their very existence as if every action they took was nothing more than a step to satisfying their rage. She kept that little tidbit to herself when Thomson had thoroughly questioned her on the capabilities of her power, they already had one group of crazed monsters on the loose, she didn't want them to think that her Spartoi would end up another.

She had tried to communicate with them directly, both through verbal and whatever meager mental connection she had with them, but they didn't respond, at least not in ways that she understood. They clearly recognized when they were being spoken too, but there didn't seem to be any real complexity to their thoughts. As far as she could tell they couldn't even figure out how to word a door without smashing it down into splinters.

She considered them to be sentient given their impressive capacity to feel hatred, but with their almost nonexistent problem-solving ability she would be hesitant to call them sapient.

"These are yours?" Piggot asked, her voice utterly expressionless as she turned her gaze back to Annette. She could feel Thomson's massive form tense up next to her at the veiled threat to her wellbeing, but she ignored him.

"Yes," she replied with an equally neutral expression etched onto her inhuman face. For a moment neither woman said nothing, a tense silence overcoming the gymnasium turned spawning ground.

"…make him suffer," Piggot said, her hands coiling into fists.

Annette could feel her own body tensing in anger and fury at the reminder of the monster who had taken _everything_ from her. One of her wolf-like creatures growled, reacting to her sudden change in mood. It's hand like paws twitched with an eager anticipation, its long claws shining in the room's lighting. Annette gave the creature a stern look, warding it off from trying to tear the woman's throat out. The creature reacted almost immediately, pulling in on itself defensively, letting out a small whine that reminded Annette of a dog.

 _Taylor always wanted a dog._

"I will," Annette growled out. Her words might have well been carved in stone with the certainty that she felt. Nilbog was going to suffer for every life that he had ended, for every life that he had stolen before it's time. His armies and mockeries of life would crumble and shatter underneath a tidal wave of black and dark and hatred and his world would _burn._

"Good," Piggot said with a sharp nod, a faint shine of approval entering her eyes. Nobody said anything after that while Piggot was rolled away, back to the makeshift med bay they were using to treat the injured.

There wasn't really anything left to say.

* * *

Annette wandered through the hallways of the now defunct elementary school. She hadn't stayed long after Piggot left, there was really nothing more she and Thomson could do without support from the outside world. Without communication, they were isolated and alone in a sea of monsters and madness.

Escape would be impossible while Nilbog's forces still roamed the city, and with the injured, young and elderly there was no way they would be able to stage a breakout, even with her Spartoi defending them. They would fall like flies to Nilbog's monstrous horde of nightmares.

Their only hope was to wait for one of her runners to get to the PRT's lines with a message of their situation. If that failed then the entire city would most likely be written off and bombed from the sky, killing them all in an inferno of flames and shrapnel.

Annette paused as she entered the school's cafeteria. Tables and chairs had been set aside to try and squeeze most of the healthier survivors into the room. Mattresses and sleeping bags ransacked from nearby houses covered the floor in a sea of fabric. Even with the regular furniture moved aside and thrown onto barricades it was still a pretty tight fit. The room had never been designed to hold this many people for any extended period of time, and with the mattresses and sleeping bags, their only real sources of comfort, scattered about what little room was left was a tight squeeze. It was hardly the most comfortable situation, but when the alternative was death it wasn't really much of a choice.

A thick cloud of depression and sorrow hung over the room's occupants like a miasma of negativity. There wasn't a single person in this room that hadn't lost someone in the last few days. With a population of only around 5000, Ellisburg would have been a rather tightly knit community, to have almost everyone you had ever known torn away from you in a single instant was something that most people wouldn't be able to comprehend.

A few of the adults and older teenagers had been trying to keep the few children that still remained alive from focusing on the near hopelessness of their situation. One or two of the board games that had been stored in the school for a rainy day had been pulled out in an effort to occupy their nervous energy, but it was a hollow thing. There was no fun of excitement, only a dull monotonous action of going through the game's motions.

"Ms. Annette," a young voice called out, nervous and unsure. Annette tore her gaze away from the mass of broken people to the young girl before her.

The young girl looked to be a little older than Taylor, but she was still plenty young. Dark hair that might have once been pretty was now a ratty mess covered in grease and sweat. A single amber eye shined under the dim lighting of the room, the other covered by a mass of black hair. Her bright red t-shirt was covered in holes and dark stains that signaled the end of its life, and a single tear that hinted at a far too close encounter with one of Nilbog's beasts.

She had met the young girl as she was carried in by one of her Spartoi, as a broken and bleeding mess. The girl had been almost completely unresponsive to any outside stimulus and had been content to hide in her own corner of the room. Annette had been more than a little surprised when the young girl had latched onto her like a limpet, bawling her eyes out and blubbering half-formed words that painted a very bleak picture for her family's fate.

"Yes, Cindy?" Annette asked with a small but fake smile as she lowered herself down to the young girl's eye level. It almost physically hurt to smile when she had so little to smile about, but she knew that the people in here had to cling to what little hope they had that they would be rescued, either by her or the Protectorate.

The young girl shifted on her feet nervously, biting her lip as she glanced around the room, obviously trying to work up the courage to talk to her. Annette remained patient and let the girl take her time, her experience with Taylor and her students recognizing that the girl wanted to ask her something but was trying to figure out how to put it into words.

Annette tried to ignore how much Cindy would look like Taylor if her hair was just a bit curlier.

 _Screams cut short as the monster snarled._

"I- can I help you?" the girl asked in a rather small and childish voice. She didn't meet Annette's gaze, instead shyly looking down at her feet as she wrung her hands nervously. Hands that glowed with a faint orange tinge. Annette tried to keep a frown off her face as she stared at the young girl.

While she had been with Lustrum's movement she had learned a lot about parahumans. She couldn't say that she interacted with them much, heck she hadn't even meet any of Lustrum's parahuman enforcers, but being in her movement she had been taught a lot about parahumans in case she was ever confronted by one. She was glad to say that such an occurrence had never happened to her prior to Nilbog, but she still gained a lot of knowledge during that time.

She knew what triggering was and what it meant for a parahuman. It was the lowest point in their lives, a snapping point brought on by a traumatic experience that no mind could survive whole. She remembered what she felt like during her trigger, the fear and pain, and _rage_ that had consumed her in that instant and turned her into a monster.

 _Crimson fluids splattered against the wall as flesh rained down onto her frozen form._

"Sweetie, I know you want to help, but the best thing to do right now is to stay with the others," Annette said in a placating manner as she tried to keep her voice from breaking. She was tempted to put her hand on Cindy's shoulder to comfort her, but she had learned that the young girl didn't like physical contact that she didn't initiate on her terms. She had been fortunate that her powers apparently made her more durable than she had originally been, which prevented her from getting third-degree burns along her arms.

Cindy had been completely apologetic afterword's and Annette couldn't find the anger to hold it against the young girl. She had been through an extremely traumatic event and had lost everything and everyone she had ever known. Annette would have been surprised if she hadn't lashed out in anger and fear.

"But I can fight the monsters," Cindy said with a pleading tone, her eyes wide and hopeful. Behind that look, Annette could see the pain and heartbreak that the girl was trying to hide. She did a remarkable good job at keeping it from showing up in her expression, but with Annette's experience with Taylor and her students, she might as well have been an open book.

"I know sweetie, but it isn't a good idea to use your powers on the monsters," Annette said as she kneeled down to the girl's eye level. She had spoken to Thomson and Jones at length about Nilbog's creations and their strengths and weaknesses. Thomson had been adamant that no fire or heat based powers were to be used on any of the monsters under _any_ circumstances.

Apparently one of the Parahumans that had been assigned to his team had been a reasonable powerful pyrokinetic who had tried to burn the monsters into ash only to find them multiplying by the dozens in the inferno that he had unleashed. Having Cindy use her abilities to fight of Nilbog would only end in disaster.

The young girl tore her gaze away from Annette, turning her attention back to an apparently fascinating speck of dust on the floor. "But I wanna help…"

"I know, but you don't have to help by fighting," Annette told her. Even disregarding the ineffectiveness of young girl's powers Annette didn't want her anywhere near the fight. Children shouldn't have to worry about getting into life or death struggles or whether they would live or die the next day. But here they were, stranded and alone wondering if the next hour would be their last.

"I don't?" Cindy asked as she gave Annette a curious but calculating look, trying to decide if she was lying or not. It was the same look that some of her more troubled students would give her when she offered her help. It had always hurt her to see a child or teenager act like that, the fear that one day Taylor might be giving her those same looks had haunted a few of her nightmares.

Annette shook her head with a small smile that she didn't truly feel. "No, you don't have to. In fact, do you see those kids over there?" she asked pointing to a group of four-year-olds who were being fussed over by a small group of women. "Why don't you go help those ladies take care of them, it looks like they need help."

A slight understatement given that one of the women looked about ready to claw her own hair out as the young child on her knee refused to stop crying.

Cindy scrunched up her nose in a rather adorable manner as she glanced as the child. "Really?"

"Yes, if you can help those children you'll be helping me a lot," Annette said with a smile that she hoped wasn't terrifying given her current appearance. The girl's face twisted in concertation as she considered the older woman's words, apparently unbothered by her twisted appearance.

"Okay."

And with that Cindy Fall skipped off with a beat in her step towards the group of struggling women. Annette sighed as she pulled herself back up from her kneeling position. As much as she wanted to stay and make sure that all of the children were okay, she still had work to do.

* * *

Danny had always joked about how she had had the harder of the two jobs, trying to keep a group of thirty-odd hormonal students in line and focused for extended periods of time. She had laughed, responding about how easy his job was compared to hers, all he had to do was manage a group of about five hundred workers so that they could all keep their jobs in an economically declining city.

Now that she had a command of a literal army of monsters, Annette wondered if his job had really been the more difficult one. She would admit that her experience in management had been relatively limited, mostly just trying to organize class assignments and little else, but now she had been thrust into a whole new ball game.

Every move she made had to be weighed against the rewards and risks, as she tried to find the action that would result in the greatest chances of their survival. For every Spartoi that she moved to defend the eastern flank that was another Spartoi not strengthening the western flank. She had to allocate just the right number to foraging for food and supplies, too few and they would starve, too many and they would be left defenseless.

Thomson had been providing her with a great amount of assistance with regards to her inexperience, but there was only so much that he could do to help. In the end, it all boiled down to how many Spartoi she had in the field. While she couldn't tell exactly how many she had, she did have a rough feeling of about three hundred at the moment, maybe four hundred if she pushed the count. And while her pits were creating more and more Spartoi, they took some time and Nilbog had a huge head start on her.

They estimated that Nilbog had the ability to create 5000 warriors for his army at the very least. And that was assuming that it was a one to one ratio of dead humans to goblins. For all, they knew he could make three or four with each body, and that wasn't even factoring in the local flora and fauna. The fact that the psycho hadn't decided to try and overrun them yet was a miracle in of itself, but Annette could feel her stomach churning at the thought of Nilbog ripping through the school with his army of monsters. An image of Cindy being trapped between the creature's jaws filled Annette's mind the young girl's straight hair being replaced by much curlier and browner hair in her mind's eye.

 _The screaming cut short at the beast tore its maw away from its victim, a thick chunk of red flesh hanging from its needle teeth._

Annette pushed those thoughts back as she came to a rather large and empty space just outside of the school. It was a bit risky for her to be outside the relative safety of the school's walls, but for what she was planning she none of the buildings would be large enough.

If she couldn't beat him through quantity, then she would have to go with quality.

Of course, if it was as simple as simply making stronger creatures then she wouldn't have been so concerned about the possibility of defeat. She had found that the larger and more complex the creature she wanted to make, the longer it took for them to form. Her wolf creatures (she really needed a better name for those things) took roughly half an hour to form as opposed to the larger birds of prey which took about an hour or so to emerge fully formed.

She had been originally tempted to just make pits for the wolves and just let them spawn until she could meet Nilbog on equal numbers, but throwing all of her eggs into one basket wasn't a very good idea. She knew for a fact that Nilbog had a few fliers which her wolves wouldn't be able to attack. She needed diversity to her forces to be truly effective.

There was also the simple fact that she every pit that she made took energy out of her that had to recharge over time. Simply spawning pits over and over again left her exhausted and unable to make anything new as she had found out early on.

She needed a balance between the power of the creature and the time and effort it took her to make it. She needed something big and powerful to act as a tank, but not so large that she wouldn't be able to make enough to use them effectively.

Annette scoured her mind for images of animals, real and mythological for a design that she could use. Her lips curled into a light smile as one creature, in particular, came to the forefront of her mind. It would hardly be complex compared to the feather throwing birds or the double headed serpents, but it would be large and powerful in its own right.

Annette held out her arms in front of her as black smoke started to pour off her form. A thick black tar like substance gathered in the palms of her hands and oozed off the side, falling to the ground in large clumps that seemed to pull towards each other. The grass and weeds that littered the ground died almost immediately as the tar came into contact with them, blackening and crumbling into dust in a mere instant. Smoke rose from the earth at the thick gooey substance seemed to burn into the very earth.

Annette could feel the pit taking its toll on her as it started to reach to about the size of a rather large swimming pool. Once she was certain that the pit was large enough Annette cut off the power, staggering a bit as a brief pang of lightheadedness overtook her.

That had taken her more effort than she had originally anticipated. She gave the pit a curious look as a few stray bubbles floated along the surface. She wasn't exactly sure how long it would take for the creature to form, but given its size and the apparent effort it took to make its spawning pool, it was probably going to take a little while.

While the pit settled into place Annette allowed her eyes to roam over the town's landscape. What had once been a quaint little town was now a hollow corpse. Streets that might have once held host to casual walkers or joggers as they greeted the neighborhoods were now covered in rubble and various junk in an effort to barricade Nilbog's creatures out. Houses and buildings surrounding the school had gotten the same treatment, the internal furniture being moved and shoved up against the door and windows so that none of Nilbog's goblins could sneak around.

Her Spartoi stood guard, their inhuman forms patrolling the streets and buildings without pause, their forms black specks against the noonday sun. It was unsettling to know that death could be around the next block, just waiting to punch through the meager defenses they had thrown together. A handful of men stood on the room of the school, rifles that her Spartoi had managed to gather in hand.

They were volunteers who had elected to risk their lives to give their loved ones a chance to live. Annette found that she was somewhat disappointed in herself when she learned of what they were doing. They knew they were risking their lives against a monster, but they didn't care so long as the people they knew and loved made it out alive, and what did she do? She hid behind monsters of her own, giving orders and making decisions that affected all of the survivors. She wasn't trained or experienced in fighting like this, and yet they had followed her orders without question simply because she had powers and they didn't.

It felt like the weight of the world had been set upon her shoulders all because she had been lucky in the cosmic draw. She wasn't brave like the PRT agents who had come to fight a monster straight out of someone's nightmare or the spotters risking their lives for hundreds of others. She wasn't brave.

She was just _angry._

Angry at Nilbog. Angry at the PRT. Angry at Ellisburg.

Angry at herself.

 _Blood pooled in her hands as she desperately shook the still warm body, the stick liquid clinging to her now colorless skin._

Because as much as she wanted to deny it or convince herself that it wasn't her fault, that nobody could have predicted what had happened, they were gone because of her. She had been the one that suggested they make a stop in Ellisburg for lunch when he had wanted to blow through the town and get to their destination an hour or so away. They could have just passed through the town, none the wiser to the threat looming over their shoulders.

But they hadn't.

Because of her.

For a brief moment, Annette allowed her self-control to slip. Her fist slammed into the brick mortar of the school, smashing the clay structure and sending a spider web of cracks along the support structure's side. Despite just having punched the side of a wall with enough force to crack it, all she felt was a faint tingling sensation along her knuckles instead of the broken bones she would have gotten a mere forty-eight hours ago.

Annette slid down to her knees as her body wracked with choked sobs. Despite having saved the lives of over three hundred people she hadn't been able to save the two who mattered to her more than anything else in the world.

 _MOMMY!_

She would have cried if her eyes could still shed tears.

* * *

Annette wasn't sure how long she had laid there on her knees as she silently cried for her wonderful husband and beautiful daughter. But for all her power she just felt so helpless.

But crying wouldn't help her or any of the survivors depending on her for protection. She had to pull herself together, she had already failed once, she couldn't fail again.

Annette started to pull herself back to her feet when the sound of a bird's cry filled the air. Glancing up she saw that it was one of her birds, its black wings spread out across the sky, outlined by the sun.

The creature swooped down towards her and landed on her outstretched arm. She recognized it as one of the smaller ones that she had made to try and communicate without the outside world. But instead of a sheet of paper that she had tied around its feet to explain their situation, a radio was strapped to its torso. Annette could feel a smile start to stretch across her face as a small light on the radio blinked a bright green.

Annette felt her smile turn into a full-blown grin as she shoved her way through double doors to the school, uncaring as her strength slammed the doors into the walls, cracking paint and plaster and utterly smashing the handles.

As much as she wanted to do nothing more than mourn for her family she couldn't afford to waste any more time, not with the outside world waiting for an update on their situation. As she passed back into the gymnasium as a small sounder of boars shoved their way through. As Thomson and Jones looked up from the map to see her holding the radio in her hand with the struggling bird being slightly crushed in the other, one thought ran through Annette's mind.

Nilbog was going to _pay_.

Nilbog would suffer a thousand times over for what he did to them. She would take his little world and grind it to naught but dust and ash. And only when she had deprived him of everything that he held close to himself would she end his miserable existence.

This was the beginning of the end.

And she couldn't wait to watch him _burn._

* * *

 **Special Thanks to my** **Patron** **s:** Velzon, Sphinxes, Sanjay and xxpowerxx1qz


	3. Initiation

**Enjoy!**

Initiation

 _This has been a horrible year._

That was the one thought running through Legend's mind as he scanned the report one more time for any last-minute notes he might need for the briefing. Honestly, though, he couldn't bring himself to truly focus on the words littering the page. Every time he read the report it only seemed to get worse, which seemed to be a common trend these last few months.

Clark's death at the hands of a cannibalistic killer. And now this…this slaughter.

Despite having read the report a dozen times his stomach still churned at the thought of a slaughter on such a massive scale. Almost 5000 people dead from a single parahuman and an entire town lost to his creations. It was a Master attack on a scale that had never been seen before.

It wasn't as if he hadn't encountered death before, with gangs like the Slaughterhouse and the Endbringers death wasn't something that came in short supply nowadays. But even the Slaughterhouse would be hard pressed to come up with such a high death toll in such a short amount of time. Even an Endbringer attack was somewhat tamer compared to this Nilbog. For all their destructive prowess Endbringers maintained a regular schedule and were more akin to natural disasters than psychotic madmen. They weren't personal. They weren't _human._

How a human being could choose to kill and transform his fellows into monstrous creatures was something that Legend was never going to be able to understand. It spoke of a twisted mind with no thought or regard for anyone other than themselves.

Legend pushed any signs of his discomfort off his face as he entered the room. He couldn't be seen as conflicted or uncertain, he had to be Legend, the hero of the Protectorate and shining beacon of hope for the nervous parahumans assembled before him. The group before him consisted of the capes who would be the squad leaders for the mission. They had been called from all over the nation for their experience and leadership skills. While some of them he had never met in person before, he could recognize each one of them and put names to their costumes, both cape and personal.

"I wish that we could have gathered here under better circumstances, but I'm afraid that's not the case," Legend said, decided to rip the band-aid off in one go. There was no point in trying to open with a formality or pleasant greeting while an S class threat loomed over the horizon. A few hushed mutterings broke out amongst the small group at his words as a quiet unease overfell the assembled capes.

"Approximately forty-eight hours ago, two PRT strike squads and parahuman support were sent to investigate the town of Ellisburg, New York," Legend said as a projection of the town was placed onto the screen behind him. "The greater PRT had received reports of a new villain who was occupying the town. While they had been filed away, the size and small parahuman population of the town made it a lower priority, at least until all communications with the town were abruptly cut off. The squad's assignment had been to investigate the new villain, and if possible contain him."

"Only three PRT agents and eight parahumans made it out alive," Legend said as something sharp and powerful coiled in his gut. He had chosen to leave out the part where the reason that those eight parahumans had survived was because they had chosen to turn tail and flee instead of helping their unpowered teammates. He could honestly say he had never been more disappointed of a group of Protectorate heroes in his entire life. If he could have his way, he would make sure that all of those parahumans were assigned to an Alaska branch for the rest of their lives.

But Legend was forced to set aside thoughts of punishments as a cold sweat broke out among the Protectorate capes at his words. He understood their trepidation. While they didn't have any powers of their own, a PRT strike squad was not something to be underestimated. They had taken down dangerous parahuman time and time again. It had been a PRT squad who had killed Breed of the Slaughterhouse by firing an incendiary rocket into a building he had commandeered to grow his "pets".

To have such a thorough defeat of not just one but two squads and their parahuman support spoke volumes to how dangerous this Nilbog was.

"Nilbog has proven himself to be unstable and extremely powerful, and as of two hours ago, he has been officially classified as an S class threat," Legend said, the tension in the room spiking up again as more bad news poured out if his mouth. The number of active S-class threats around the world could be counted on the back of one hand. To have one of those threats lurking near where you lived was something of a nightmare. The fact that this was the first S-class threat excluding the Endbringers to strike on US soil was even more terrifying.

"He's a bio-manipulator on a scale we've never seen before. He can make living creatures out of the biomass he collects," Legend continued, trying to push past the growing cloud of unease that threatened to overtake the room. "He has no apparent limits to what forms of biological mass he can manipulate whether it be plants, animals…or people."

More than a few curses slipped out at that, and frankly, Legend had to concur with their rather crude assessment. It was one thing to know that an entire town had been killed off by a madman, it was entirely another for those people to be converted into monsters. It was something akin to what Grey Boy had done back in the day, a fate far worse than death.

"Is his power ranged?" One of the capes asked from the back of the room. Legend turned his gaze to the petite woman, a member of Texas branch, Blizzard if he remembered correctly.

"We haven't been able to confirm if his power is ranged or touched based yet," Legend said as he tried to hide a small grimace. The thought of fighting someone like Nilbog with a reasonably large range on his powers would be a nightmare. "But eyes on the ground have confirmed that bodies are being dragged back to his lair, so if he does have a range it's most likely a fairly short one. That said we're going to institute Behemoth protocols, nobody gets within thirty feet of him, understood?"

At the general chorus of agreements from the assembled capes, Legend pushed his way through to the real meat of the briefing.

"Plans had been drawn up to bomb the city and Nilbog into oblivion and were being sent through the Think Tank when new intelligence changed the situation," Legend said as a close-up image of Ellisburg was set up on the screen behind him with a small building in the lower southwest corner highlighted by a small laser protruding from his finger. Copying the patter's of a LED laser pointer was child's play to him and allowed him to keep his hands free.

"In this building, there are approximately three hundred civilian survivors and the three PRT agents that managed to escape Nilbog's massacre. We will be deploying in three hours to evacuate these people and to eliminate Nilbog," Legend said as some of the assembled capes tension drained out of their bodies. The fact that there were survivors in this mess proved that this wasn't going to be a completely hopeless mission.

"Sir, how did they manage to survive?" One cape which Legend recognized as Shortcut of the Georgia Protectorate division asked with a raised hand. A few mutterings and curious looks broke out at the short-range teleporter's words. If Nilbog had managed to take out two PRT strike squads, there should have been no way for a group of untrained and panicked civilians to hold off such a dangerous cape.

"During Nilbog's attack, a civilian triggered," Legend said as he tried to ignore the sharp winces and sudden body shifts as the full implications of what he said hit the group. While Legend had never gone through a trigger event courtesy of Cauldron, he understood the implications. He had seen the aftermaths of some pretty nasty trigger events and knew that they weren't something that one brought up lightly. They were something that every natural cape could understand and relate to in some fashion. "Her trigger has given her similar Master class powers to Nilbog. She can create and command creatures made of non-biological material and has been spending the last two days holding off Nilbog's horde."

There were a few mutterings at that admission. Nilbog had been officially classified as a Master 8 at this point, for any cape to hold such a powerful parahuman off for any length of time suggested one of equal power or standing. Having two equally powerful parahumans triggering in such a short span of time was almost unheard of.

Legend's eyes flickered down to the paper in front of him one last time to make sure he had her name right before he spoke. "Cadmus is going to be our force equalizer. Her creations will allow us to match Nilbog's numbers blow for blow and minimize the risk to ourselves."

"Why don't we just evacuate everyone, _then_ bomb the crap out of him?" A cape from the back of the room asked. Legend didn't catch who had spoken, but there were some general murmuring of agreement at the capes words.

"Intel from Cadmus and the surviving PRT strike team has confirmed that Nilbog has made his monsters immune to fire and heat. In fact, all it seems to do it make them spontaneously multiply and breed," Legend said, silencing the hushed words. The implications were clear, any attempt to destroy Nilbog's forced with a bombing run would only result in an even worse situation than before. A Tinker tech bomb might solve the problem, but Legend didn't think that the Directors or the President would want to make such a gamble.

"The only way we can stop Nilbog is if we fight our way through his monster to him," Legend said as he met the eyes of every member of the crowd. "And if we go in, we can't afford to get cold feet, this is all or nothing. If we don't stop Nilbog here, there will be nothing to stop him from letting his monsters spread from coast to coast and beyond."

A cold chill hung in the air at his words. This was a threat unlike anything they had ever faced before, a literal extinction event. Millions, if not Billions dead because of a single man.

"Now I want you all to understand this is a voluntary mission," Legend said as he tried to muster as much compassion into his voice as he could. "Even with Cadmus we're expected to take some heavy casualties and many of us may not be returning home. If any of you are having second thoughts, then no one will judge you if you chose to leave."

A tense silence overcame the room at his words as the assembled capes eyed each other. While he had been telling the truth that the mission was voluntary there still remained a certain expectation of Protectorate capes to do their jobs and protect the people. He hated that he had to manipulate them in such a way, but if they thought that they would be looked down upon by their fellow heroes, even in the privacy of their heads, they would be less likely to break and run during the battle. There were a few shuffling noises as some of the capes adjusted their seating, but nobody made a move for the exit.

Legend gave them a genuine smile. He knew that while the PR teams sometimes played up the level of heroism that the Protectorate actually represented, he knew when push came to shove everyone who had joined for the right reasons would stay to the bitter end. "Thank you," he said, his appreciation real. He knew that a simple thank you wouldn't do them much good when they came face to face with Nilbog's creations, but he wanted them to know how much he respected them for their commitment.

"The Guild has asked that we coordinate with them for this operation so you'll probably have a few members mixed into your teams," Legend said. Though "asked" might have underplayed what had really happened. "Demanded" would have been a more appropriate word choice. Narwhal had all but told him that the Guild was going to be assisting them on this mission, no matter what they said.

Legend didn't blame the woman for her vehemence. The Guild traveled around the world dealing with S-class and A-class threats that proved to be threats to local human civilization. To have once such incident happen right in their backyard would drive them into mobilization unlike anything before.

There were a few hushed conversations in the back, but all in all the attitude towards his announcement seemed to be pretty genial.

"Now team A will be led by…"

* * *

The biohazard variation of his costume felt odd and somewhat bulky compared to his standard uniform, but it was a necessary evil given the threat of biological contaminants. In addition to the suit and the inoculations that he had gotten a Tinker tech wristband was strapped to him underneath the fabric of the bio suit. It had been designed to boost the wearer's immune system in the event of an infection. Legend wasn't sure how much they would be able to do against a parahuman crafted virus, but it was better than nothing.

Despite himself, Legend shifted in his seat with nervous anticipation as the helicopter blades hummed overhead. The preparation time before combat was what always got him, even more so than the actual fighting. Being forced to sit and wait while evil people committed atrocities was always something that pushed his patience to the limits.

He could have easily flown ahead himself and beaten the helicopter to Ellisburg, but then he would be charging in headfirst into a situation where he didn't have all the facts. For all he knew Nilbog had set up some sort of parasite or creature waiting for someone like him in the atmosphere above the city.

He was brave, not stupid.

But even if he was being forced to sit in a slow-moving helicopter (slow to his speed anyway) he was still going to be one of the first people on the ground. He would be assisting in evacuating the survivors, appraising himself of the situation and then securing an area for the rest of the parahumans to gather.

Legend glanced over at the young man sitting across from him. The young parahuman Connect had only just graduated to the Protectorate a few months ago, but his power made him an important figure in the evacuation of Ellisburg. Connect could create two portals that between objects of similar composition with a range of about ten miles. He had come with the sole purpose of collecting a piece of the environment so that they wouldn't have to funnel 300 people through helicopters. Once they had secured a perimeter he would open a portal to the hastily constructed decontamination facility about five miles from where the main command center had been set up.

"You alright son?" Legend asked over the headset.

The young man shifted in his seat a little, apparently surprised by the sudden conversation after a relatively silent flight. A pair of bright green eyes glanced over to Legend through his helmet, wide as his hands twitched against his legs with nervous energy.

"Y-yeah," he said, trying to suppress a slight stutter. "Just nervous, that's all."

Nervous might have been a slight understatement. Legend could practically see the sweat and fog building up on the inside of the young man's biohazard helmet. His leg tapped against the ground like a jackhammer, and Legend wouldn't have been surprised if the boy's heart was beating like a rabbit's.

Legend gave him a comforting smile, "Don't worry son, you're going to do fine."

It was only natural that the young man was so nervous given he was one of the linchpins of this entire operation. Without his portals to move refugees and heroes then trying to get everyone safely out and into the city would be a logistical nightmare given the threat of ambush by Nilbog's forces.

None of the other parahumans in the back of the helicopter said anything, apparently respecting the cape enough not to bring up his feelings. Like Connect, more than a few of them looked a bit nervous of the prospect of fighting a cape as powerful and deranged as Nilbog.

The fact that they had a member of the Foun- Triumvirate eased some of their concern, but there was nothing quite like going up against an unknown and powerful cape. The fact that Alexandria herself would be leading the fight against Nilbog once everything was secure gave them some hope for their own survival.

Eidolon would have joined them, but the recent Slaughterhouse attack in Texas was keeping him occupied. Legend hoped that he would be able to make Clark's murderer pay for what she had done, but the dark recess of his mind Legend didn't hold much hope that his friend would be able to kill her by himself. While the man was the second most powerful parahuman on the planet short of Scion himself the Siberian had managed to engage all four Founders at once and come off without a scratch. Add in the fact that the Slaughterhouse were a group of slippery psychos and Eidolon's odds of killing her didn't get too high. But Legend pushed such thoughts aside as his headset began to crackle.

"We having incoming," the pilot's voice said over the headsets. Legend brought up a disintegration ray in his hands as he waited for a confirmation of hostilities. His hand glowed with a bright blue tinge as energy potent enough to vaporize and an elephant in a single blow bubbled up to the surface.

"Red One to Blue One, we are inbound to your location and have sight of something in the air, confirm hostile? Over."

 _"Blue One to Red One, negative on hostile. An escort is being sent to guide you to the landing zone. Over."_

Legend let his power shut off as the confirmation of friendlies echoed through the headsets. Curious to what sort of escort Cadmus sent them Legend twisted his body around to glance out the small porthole window behind him. His breath caught in his throat at the huge bird of prey that took its place right next to the chopper without a care in the world.

It was a massive thing, its wingspan easily the length of the chopper if not more so. Talons that looked like they could crush concrete hung below the beast as its razor-sharp beak gleamed in the sunlight. A thick miasma of black fog hung over the creature like a blanket, masking the main body of the bird, but for a person with his eyesight that meant little. Feathers as sharp as blades covered the creature's back. A bone white mockery of a mask covered the creature's upper head as four red eyes glared out at the world.

Some smaller, but no less terrifying, bird-like creatures followed it, joining up in a formation that surrounded the helicopter. A series of cawing echoed from the outside, heard even over the chopper's rotating blades.

"Glad she's on our side," One of the capes muttered, just barely loud enough to be picked up by his microphone. Even as he flushed in embarrassment for speaking a little too loudly Legend couldn't find it in his heart to blame him.

And in all honesty, Legend had to agree with him. Even knowing that he could probably vaporize most of them with a few lasers there was something primally terrifying about them. It was the same feeling that one got when looking at a tiger or lion at the zoo. You intellectually knew that you were safe from them, but it did little do detract from the sheer presence and power they extruded.

"I'll say," Legend whispered too quietly for the mic to pick up.

* * *

As he stepped out of the helicopter Legend took stock of the surroundings. What had probably once been a quiet little town was now a literal ghost town. Rubble blocked the streets in crudely assembled barricades and entire houses looked like they had been torn apart for kindling. There was an aura of depression and gloom hanging over the once bustling city, a black mark that would stain the souls of everyone who had lived here and was still alive to the tell the tale.

But what caught his eye the most were the creatures. They stood out even amongst the backdrop of destruction and death. Black furred beasts in a rather impressive variety of forms were patrolling the immediate area. Werewolves, boars, bears, birds, it was as if Cadmus had chosen to try and imitate every animal that she could. It was rare to see a Master as powerful and diverse as her.

Pulling his gaze away from the roaming creatures, he caught sight of his rendezvous. Dominic Thomson was an absolute mountain of a man that towered over his fellow compatriots. Muscles that looked like they could sheer someone's neck in two were crossed over before his chest as he patiently waited for them to finished unloading.

Legend had met the man a few times as a result of his capacity as a PRT strike squad captain. He was a good man and took his job seriously and had always pushed his team to the best of their abilities and beyond. Despite a few grey hairs wiggling their way into his scalp and a general feeling of exhaustion the man still looked more than ready to fight. Legend had to suppress a small chuckle, knowing the man he would probably offer to take Nilbog on by himself if he could.

But despite Thomson's massive form, the woman next to him was what really caught Legend's attention. She was shorter than the huge man next to her but still would have been taller than most people. Her skin was a pale alabaster white that was in stark contrast to the blood red veins that crisscrossed her arms and highlighted her eyes. A pair of glowing red eyes stared at him as she seemed to examine his form, her iris' faintly glow made more obvious by her black pupils and sclerae.

Instead of a costume, all she wore were a pair of ripped and worn out jeans and a simple t-shirt that had seen far better days. It was a reminder that the women before him weren't a parahuman who had chosen to be a hero, she was a traumatized woman who had been forced into the role by the situation.

Even though her expression remained neutral as he approached the two of them, Legend had enough experience with people to recognize that this woman was hurting on the inside. The way her fists were discreetly clenched by her side as she watched the rest of the Protectorate parahumans exited the Chinook. The nearly undetectable twitch of her lips as she held back a sneer pointed to a woman who was angry and hollow on the inside.

He could only begin to imagine what she had gone through, being forced to trigger in an extremely hostile environment while people that she had known for all her life were being killed, and then being forced to stay in that environment for several days. The fact that she had found the strength and will to stand and fight the monsters at her doorstep was a testament to her character and resolve.

"Sir," Thomson rumbled in a baritone voice as Legend drew himself within arm's length.

"Thomson, it's good to see you're alright," Legend said with a disarming smile. He had hoped that it might break some of the tension that he could feel building up in the atmosphere, but instead, Thomson glanced down at the ground in an uncharacteristically somber mood.

"I wish the same could be said for my teammates and the people of Ellisburg," the man said, a hint of anger and betrayal coloring his tone. Legend kept himself from swallowing at the man's words. He knew that the people of Ellisburg might hold some resentment to the Protectorate given that those who had come to help them had run away like cowards when faced with the first sign of serious resistance. But to hear it coming from Thomson, a decorated PRT officer who had worked with Protectorate heroes for at least the last ten years was something else entirely.

Even if they saved the town Legend suspected that human and parahuman relations might be a bit cooler if it got out to the general public what had happened.

"Well, now we're here to make sure that they do make it out safely," Legend told them with as much sincerity as he could muster. The woman, who he suspected was Cadmus, snorted in disdain. Legend twisted his head a bit to face her, the fabric of the bio suit crinkling as his body moved underneath.

"Hopefully your Protectorate _heroes_ will be better than the last ones," she said scornfully. Unlike Thomson who was professional and trained enough to set aside the issue for the time being, Cadmus had no such compunctions. It was clear that she felt betrayed and blamed the Protectorate for at least part of this disaster. Legend needed to mollify her so that she could remain cooperative with the Protectorate for the length of the crisis.

"Ma'am, I understand that you're angry, but right now we need to focus on getting the civilians out of here," Legend said in an attempt to push aside any more controversial conversations for the time being. Cadmus looked like she wanted to argue the point, but a quick glance from Thomson and she backed down a bit.

She was clearly still angry if the curling of her lips were anything to go by, but she seemed to be willing to put aside her anger to make sure that the civilians got out of harm's way. She gave Legend a neutral grunt as she settled back down into a less combative posture.

"We're going to be using Connect to get the survivors to a quarantined safe zone," Legend said as the mentioned parahuman activated his powers on a piece of tarp that he had brought from the quarantine area. A shimmering portal about the size of a small sedan opened up on the spot, the iris of the circle too murky to see what was on the other side. Legend knew that Connect's power was safe, but he was going to have to convince the people who had been holed up in the school for the past three days that it was safe. They were going to be cautious and wary, especially if they shared Cadmus' opinion on the Protectorate.

"Once we get them to safety we can focus on taking down Nilbog," Legend explained as Connect gave him a wave to signal that he was ready to take on passengers.

As he spoke Cadmus' eyes glowed a bright fiery red as the mention of fighting Nilbog. There was a slight hint of sadistic glee behind those eyes at the thought of engaging Nilbog in combat. He knew that she was well within in her right to want the madman to suffer after everything that she had been put through, but he was going to keep an eye on her. The last thing they needed was their force multiplier going off the walls for a chance to kill the bio manipulator.

"Is the area secure?" Legend asked as he turned his attention back to Thomson.

The experienced PRT agent gave Legend a shrug. "We've made it as secure as we could, given the circumstances, but that doesn't mean that the bastard couldn't have slipped something small through the line," the man said as he gave a short nod to the makeshift barricades that littered the streets. Legend couldn't help but follow his gaze towards one in particular as wolf-like creations of Cadmus climbed up and down the pile of splintered wood and debris as easily as one would walk down the street. Despite their inhuman appearance, there was a certain grace the creature's movements, like a predator stalking down its prey, everything it did was deliberate and decisive.

Legend could feel the part of his brain that controlled fight or flight come into focus at the sight of the predatory looking creatures.

Legend felt his throat go a bit dry as one of the creatures twisted its head to until they were eye to eye. There was something terrifying hidden beneath those red and yellow glowing eyes that made Legend's hairs stand up on end. The creature's clawed fingers seemed to twitch with contained energy, but on some unseen cue from Cadmus the creature turned its back to Legend and walked off to rejoin its brethren.

"I see," Legend said once he got his bearings back together. Thomson's answer was a bit disappointing, but it wasn't entirely unexpected. It wasn't as if they would be able to effectively close the school off from the rest of the world. The fact that they had managed to survive this long in enemy territory was a miracle in of itself.

"Cadmus-"

"Annette Hebert," the woman said, apparently unconcerned that she had just interrupted the leader of the Protectorate and one of the most power Blasters on the planet.

Legend blinked behind his mask. "What?"

"My name is Annette Hebert, not Cadmus," the woman slowly repeated, as if Legend was a particularly dull child.

Legend wasn't sure what to say to that. He knew that the woman would never be able to hold a civilian identity given her appearance, but even most Case 53s chose a cape name. The parahumans who tried to interact with the world without a secret identity didn't tend to live very long.

"Are you sure you don't want to use a cape name?" Legend asked earnestly. Using a cape name wasn't just a pastime for heroes and villains, it gave them a certain amount of protection. Looking for someone's secret identity was generally frowned upon by the cape community. Having a secret identity gave people a certain amount of deniable plausibility and some freedom from being a cape.

"I'm sure," she said with an expression that held far too much anger to be a smile. Legend met her glowing gaze head on as he tried to keep himself from reflexively flinching.

"You're sure that your creatures will be able to take on Nilbog's?" Legend asked, drawing the conversation back to what was important. They couldn't afford to find out too late that she had overestimated her capabilities. The last thing he wanted was for this town to run red with blood for a second time. Cadmus opened her mouth to say something when a dull thud caught the group's attention as if a car had been crushed. Legend glanced around the area, eyes searching for a threat as he pulled on his power. The bright white glow of a cryogenic laser covered his hands as another thud filled his ears.

It was when the creature rounded the corner of the school that Legend recognized the sound as footsteps. Despite himself, Legend couldn't help but swallow nervously at the sight of the beast. It was a massive thing, towering over even the school building. Legs that were as thick as tree trunks and crushed the ground and gravel with its mere weight. Tusks that were two or three times the length of himself hung from the creature's snout. The sunlight caressed their curves, highlight points that so sharp that they could have gutted a tank. A long trunk trailed down to the ground, its deceptively dexterous form weaving its way through the air as if it was a snake. Spikes of white bone jutted out from the creature's back while plates of bone armor were placed around its more vulnerable limbs.

Legend could hear some fearful whimpers from behind him as the creature swung its head around to eye them. A plate of armor covered the creature's face, white and dull aside from blood red lines running up and down its face as if it was some sort of pattern. A pair of eyes that were the size of his fists glared at him and the assembled parahumans before apparently losing interest. A trumpet of an elephant echoed through the buildings loud enough to shake his very bones as the creature shook the earth beneath its feet.

Slowly, Legend turned his attention back to Cad- Annette Hebert. The woman gave him a smug smile that showed far too many teeth to be friendly. Her eyes seemed to light up with a mixture of eager anticipation and amusement at his stupefaction.

"Oh, I think they'll manage."

* * *

 **Special Thanks to my Patrons:** Velzon, Sphinxes, Sanjay and xxpowerxx1qz


	4. End of the Beginning

**Enjoy!**

End of the Beginning

If she wanted to be honest with herself, Annette couldn't bring herself to hate Legend.

Oh, she was angry at him, there was no doubt in her mind at that. She could feel the fury of a star burning in her chest every time she glanced at him or any of his Protectorate capes. He was the face of the Protectorate, the organization that had chosen to abandon them to the nonexistent mercy of a madman, but she couldn't work up the hatred to truly loathe him. Partly because the entirety of her hatred and rage was being focused on the monster that had put her and the other civilians of Ellisburg in this situation, but also because he just looked so worn out.

He hid it well behind a mask of friendliness and determination, but she could see the way his shoulders hunched in on themselves a little, as if standing up was some great effort on his part. Even through the tinted visor of his hazmat suit his smile was strained and brittle like glass as if a single blow would shatter it into a million pieces.

Annette wondered how many times he had seen something like this before. The man faced an Endbringer every three months and was forced to fight in the corpse of a city as a monster tore apart civilians and heroes alike. Were they just another lost city to him? Another weight on his shoulders?

"We're about three-quarters of the way through," Legend said as another group of refugees stepped through the shimmering portal. Annette would have through it would have been easier just to have everyone go at once. But apparently, the Protectorate and PRT wanted to keep the size of the group manageable for the decontamination teams on the other side, lest they risk some pet or creation of Nilbog's slipping through.

The thought of Nilbog's monster rampaging across the countryside without pause was enough to send chills down her spine. She supposed that the Protectorate thought that risking the lives of the refugees still in the town was less important than the lives of the surrounding towns and cities. Part of her wanted to hate them for demoting them to pure numbers while the other part couldn't help but agree. They had already had one nightmare in this town, they didn't need to add others.

"Good," was all Annette could really say as the portal surface warped and twisted as another group stepped through. Convincing the people to travel through the ominous looking portal had been a bit tricky, but having a few of her creatures step through and back had been enough to convince them of its safety.

"Once everyone's out we can start bringing more heroes in," Legend continued. Annette couldn't hide the sneer that overtook her lips as the mention of the "heroes" that would be coming to help fight alongside her Spartoi meat shields. Funny how eager they were to fight and help when _they_ weren't at risk.

"What will happen to the others?" Annette asked, drawing a confused look from the Protectorate Blaster. "The heroes that abandoned us," Annette clarified, her voice dropping into a slight growl at the mention of the cowards that doomed them to death and worse.

Legend seemed to flinch somewhat at the reminder of his fellow's failure, but he kept up an impressive poker face. "They'll be dealt with," Legend said with enough conviction that Annette almost believed him. Less than a week ago, she would have never considered doubting Legend, one of the most powerful capes in the world, and the leader of the Protectorate, but recent events had reminded her not to take things at face value. It was a lesson she had learned in her younger years when a man she had thought to be her friend tried used her to rape her best female friend. She had taken the lesson to heart not to judge someone by a pretty face, but the glamor of the Protectorate's heroic image had managed to blind her somewhat to the fact that in the end, the heroes were merely human.

"Dealt with how?" Annette pushed on, her eyes narrowing somewhat as she stared the hero down. Legend shifted uncomfortably underneath her gaze and though she couldn't see them she could easily imagine his eyes flickering back and forth nervously. Annette wasn't sure if his nervousness stemmed from her red inhuman gaze or the nature of the question itself.

After taking a moment to compose himself Legend told her, "There will be an investigation to determine how complicit they were in their dereliction of their duty."

"And then what? Will the ones with the rich mommies and daddies cry out for help?" Annette asked sarcastically, her lips curling into a sneer. While Brockton Bay wasn't exactly the cream of the crop, there were a few wealthy families living in the city. Some of their relatives had come through her classrooms for a time and while not all of them acted like spoiled brats, there was a certain sense of entitlement that you didn't see the kids that had to work two jobs to scrape by.

The flinch from Legend told her everything she needed to know.

During the hours between her recharges she and Thomson had talked in order to keep their minds off of how utterly screwed they would be if the Protectorate didn't come. Thomson didn't reveal any identities, mostly because he didn't know any, but he had heard some rumors about the capes that had been assigned to his team. They were the troublemakers, the ones that became a hero because it was fun or exciting rather than having a desire to protect innocent people. The heroes who got off scot-free for their mischief because of their parent's connections.

Apparently, the Protectorate had held back the best heroes in reserve because they didn't think it would be necessary to take down what they had originally thought to be a single Changer. This was despite the fact that this cape in question had managed to cut off all forms of communication to the outside world. Thomson had told her that the whole thing reeked of laziness on the part of the people who put the team together in a rushed effort to deal with what they thought at the time was a minor irritant. For them, it had been easier to grab a few of the less loved heroes and throw them out to fight rather than trying to fight for the few heroes that might have actually tried to help.

And now almost five thousand people had paid the price for their ineptitude.

"This is a delicate situation," Legend tried to say, no doubt in an attempt to assuage some of her concerns, but Annette was having none of that. He didn't get to preach about the importance of the bureaucratic process or how those heroes could still save lives at a later date. Not when _fivethousand_ people were dead or subject to fates far worse than merely dying.

"No, it really isn't," Annette said with a growl. A few of her Spartoi shifted in response to her agitation, letting out a few soft growls of their own as their movements became tenser and more predatory. She could see the desire for bloodshed and violence light up in their blood red eyes like the first flicker of a flame, just waiting to be unleashed. Some of the heroes tensed up as well in response, but she didn't care. If this is what it would take to get them to listen, then that was on them.

"Those capes," Annette said, careful not to use the word hero. It was a term that had been thrown around far too lightly these last few days. " _Will_ answer for what they did here, and if that means that I have to track them all down and drag them kicking and screaming all the way then I **will**."

Everyone within hearing distance had stopped whatever they had been doing to listen to the argument. From the corner of her eye, Annette could see the next group of refugees stopping short of the portal to watch the proceedings, ignoring the man urging them to go through. She could tell from their expressions that they were just as curious about Legend's response as she was.

Legend seemed to tense as his masked eyes swept over the assembled group. A few of the capes returned to whatever they had been doing while other blatantly ignored their tasks to watch the proceedings with interest. After a long moment, Legend sighed, and for a moment Annette felt the slightest sliver of pity for the man. He looked as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and was trying to juggle a dozen bowling balls at the same time. But she wasn't going to let this slide under the rug, not when she and the people of Ellisburg needed justice. Nilbog would burn, but the capes that fled the scene were just as responsible for this travesty as the madman was.

"You have my word that the parahumans that abandoned you here _will_ be brought up on charges," Legend said as he straightened himself up to his full height. His commanding presence had a noticeable effect on the people gathered, even the refugees looked a little less wary than before. And honestly, Annette _wanted_ to believe the man.

This was Legend, one of the most powerful capes in the world and the leader of the Protectorate. While Taylor had always favored Alexandria, her little owl had chattered on about the Blaster's powers for hours whenever the topic of the Founders had been brought up. How ecstatic would Taylor have been if she could have been here to see this? Annette wanted to believe that the man would do the right thing and see that those who had left her and the town to die would see justice.

But these last few days had reminded her that not everyone did the right thing when push came to shove. Some would shatter or break in the face of certain doom, giving into the easy way out to avoid their own deaths while condemning others. Annette had little doubt that those capes would be considered more valuable for their powers than the average person to the higher ups in the PRT and Protectorate. How many of the five thousand lives was each of them worth?

The thought of being reduced to numbers on a page made Annette's blood boil, but as she stared the man down she realized that now wasn't the time to push this. Not while Nilbog's monsters were roaring at the gates.

Annette grunted and tore her gaze away from Legend, and like that the tension and fear that had been subtly building evaporated in an instant. The people that had stopped to stare at the confrontation went about their business, though they still glanced over in case anything else started up.

Annette wasn't entirely satisfied with Legend's response. Even if he did everything in his power didn't mean that others couldn't interfere to get them off scot free. But at the very least she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being and focus on killing Nilbog first and foremost. Even so, as she walked away Annette couldn't help but give the man a warning of what was to come should he fail to live up to his word.

"I will make sure that the people that are responsible for by husband and daughter's deaths are brought to justice _hero_ ," she said, so much contempt dripping from her voice that Legend's hands twitched in response. The slightest glow shrouded his palms for the briefest of seconds before fading into nothing.

"And I don't care what side of the law they're on."

* * *

Annette sighed as she sat down. The chair creaked underneath her weight, the metal framework shifting to accommodate her form. Though she didn't really need to sleep or rest anymore, using her powers did exhaust her. She had created another three pits to spawn more wolves and bears for the coming fight and needed to rest and let her well of energy rebuild. The relative silence of the room provided her with a brief respite from the hustle of capes and Spartoi outside.

A half-written lesson plan remained up on the whiteboard that showed that the class had been planning on learning about Shakespeare's plays. Despite the situation, Annette couldn't help but smile a little. Shakespeare had always been one of her favorite playwrights. She had always loved talking about him in her class and had hoped that when Taylor had gotten old enough she would be able to teach her herself. But now…

Annette's smile faded from her lips, the good feeling fading as quickly as it had come. The armrest of the seat groaned underneath her hand as she tightened her grip around the plastic. She could feel cracks starting to form but she could care less.

 _Parents shouldn't have to see their children die._

It had been something that she had said to a coworker of hers when she discovered that one of her students had been killed by a group of Teeth gangsters. A hard-working well-mannered child killed because a group of fools needed violence to make themselves feel better. Because none of them could stand the thought of being worthless or weak and had to prove to the world otherwise.

Nilbog was no different than any of them. He simply worked on a much larger scale.

Hundreds of children killed in mindless violence. Those that did survive would be scarred for life, and the majority of them were now without family or home. They would be shuffled off into the foster care system without another thought and left to those who couldn't begin to understand what they had gone through.

 _What would have happened to Taylor?_

If Annette could, she would trade her life in a heartbeat to see Taylor alive again. She would have wept tears of joy to know that her little owl would be able to live and experience a full life. But what would have happened to her after?

Danny's family was dead, and she was estranged from her own. She knew that the Barnes would have been more than happy to take Taylor in, but they would have lacked the legality to do so. Taylor would have been shuffled off to some foster center where she would spend the rest of her life in the hands of some strangers, assuming that she wasn't' just moved from center to center. Annette had a friend that worked in the foster center, and while there were good people looking to get the kids a better life, more than a few simply didn't care.

Would those children going through decontamination have to experience something similar? Would they be lost forever in a faceless bureaucracy because one man wanted to feel powerful?

Annette glanced down to the seat's armrest to see that she had splintered it into tiny fragments with her newfound strength. She grimaced as she shook the particulates off her hand. She was still trying to get used to her new strength and had been subject to a few accidents these last few days.

And if anyone asked, the hole in the door to the teacher's lounge where the handle would normally be was _not_ her fault.

The brief pang of levity was enough for Annette to pull herself out of that particularly depressing line of thinking and focus on what was important. Namely on the battle that was going to happen.

They only had two more groups to move through the portal, after which they would start bringing in reinforcements and the real fight would begin. With her Spartoi leading the charge they Protectorate capes would begin a sweep of the town in an effort to drive Nilbog back to his lair where they would kill him.

They were hoping they might be able to catch Nilbog by surprise, but her Spartoi had caught a few of his creatures testing the edge of their defensive perimeter and they weren't sure how much information the creatures could relay to Nilbog. The specifics on how Nilbog commanded his monsters was still unknown. For all they knew, he could have a mental like to each one of his creations and was constantly aware of everything they did, or he simply gave them commands and they carried them out to the best of their ability.

Visual evidence suggested that he needed verbal commands seeing how many of his creations seemed to wander around the town with no clear objective in sight. But even so, they didn't want to take the risk that Nilbog might be lowballing his capabilities and lulling them into a false sense of security. But regardless of how Nilbog controlled his monsters, she still had to deal with the issue of communicating with her own.

Her Spartoi were a mix of the two lines of communication. On one hand, she was reasonably aware of where most of her creations were within a certain range. She couldn't really make pinpoint statements as to where they were but instead got a general idea. The best explanation that she could come up with was when someone was following behind you. You knew that they were there and could make a reasonable assumption as to what they were doing, but you didn't know any specifics. The only way she could command her creatures through the link was if she had vision of the specific Spartoi, otherwise, every single one of them would try to fulfill the command at once. And while the thought of one of her Goliaths trying to open a refrigerator was amusing, she didn't want to risk someone getting hurt because of her Spartoi stampeding to all accomplish the same objective.

No, verbal communication was a far better method of commanding her army. Though she was going to have to find a way for her to command her creatures in the heat of battle. Legend and the Protectorate didn't want to risk her to Nilbog's monsters by putting her on the front lines. So, she was going to need a way to relay messages to her Spartoi while miles away.

A new creature then. Something that could inform the other Spartoi of their instructions without risking herself in the field of battle. It would have to be something relatively fast to get the messages out as quickly as it could. Something small then, because it wasn't like this thing was going to do any fighting on its own.

As she considered a few designs the sound of the door creaking on its hinges caught her attention. Annette tensed somewhat but relaxed as Thomson slipped through the doorway with a surprising amount of grace for someone so large.

"Thomson," Annette said as she leaned back into her seat. "I thought you were helping Legend prepping the he- capes."

The word "hero" died a quick death on her lips. Merely using the word to reference the Protectorate parahumans made her feel as though something foul had crawled into her mouth. It was a petty distinction, but given that all she had gone through she deserved some allowances.

Thomson grimaced as he leaned his back against the wall. "Higher ups decided I would be of more use back at headquarters instead," he said, a tinge of anger coloring his tone.

Annette frowned as she considered his words. She could understand some of the reasoning behind the order. Thomson was a commander without a team and didn't have any powers that could protect him from Nilbog's monsters, but the timing just seemed a bit odd. Thomson had more experience than anyone fighting Nilbog's monsters aside from her, and he was the one that had been telling her what she should do to keep them all alive. If it hadn't been for him then even with her powers she doubted that anyone would have survived. And even if his experience was limited to three days, that was three days more experience than any of the capes had. In the land of the blind, the man with one eye was king.

"Why?" Annette asked, genuine confusion lacing her voice. While she was hardly experienced in waging war, she would have thought that the intelligence that Thomson could have provided Legend and the others onsite would be of much more value.

"Some egg heads decided that I'm at risk of snapping and going on a murder spree from being in a such a high-stress environment after such a traumatic experience," Thomson said with a slight curl to his lips to show exactly what he thought of that idea.

"Isn't it your _job_ to be in high stressful and traumatic situations?" Annette asked with a blink. She understood that there was point where one needed to calm down and take a step back from their work, but for something like this to happen now of all times felt the slightest bit odd to her. During their time working together, Thomson had reassured her that he had been in situations similar to this before. Spending days in small towns, isolated from everyone they knew while they tried to kill off monsters like the Slaughterhouse 9. Though he had admitted to never having been in a situation quite like this, the fear and tension of hiding from monsters was nothing new to him.

"That's what I said," Thomson said with a disdainful snort. Annette tried to hide how nervous the idea of Thomson being gone made her feel. It hadn't merely been her physical health that he had helped keep in check, but her mental and emotional health as well. If it hadn't been for him keeping her focused on Nilbog she would have been left a broken wreck, unable to make any rational decisions in the face of the overwhelming sorrow that had nearly consumed her.

Annette took a deep breath to calm herself. She would be fine without Thomson, she just needed to keep her energies focused on fighting Nilbog. "Funny how they offer that to you and not me," Annette said with mild reproach. In all honestly, she would have refused if the Protectorate had told her to leave, she wasn't going anywhere until Nilbog was dead and gone. But to never even get an offer, merely the expectation that she would fight because she could? Even when they had been communicating over the radio there had been no offer to evacuate her from the zone along with the other refugees, but merely the assumption that she would stay and fight Nilbog. The idea that she was being used by the PRT and Protectorate to do their dirty work rankled her. She was going to have to inform them that when this was all over that she wasn't their personal attack dog.

"Different standards I suppose," Thomson said with a shrug. Though despite his calm exterior Annette could see a spark of anger at the injustice that she was facing. It was one thing to expect someone like Thomson to keep fighting, he had signed up and trained to fight parahumans that could crush like an insect. But to expect her, a college professor who had just lost her husband and daughter, to fight just because she had powers didn't sit right with her. Would Cindy and the other triggers have to go through something similar? Being forced to fight against monsters and madmen all because they had gotten powers.

"They wanted me to leave right away to debrief, but I told them they could stuff it until the last evacuee got out," Thomson said, his lips curling in thinly veiled amusement. Annette felt her mouth stretch into a smile at the thought of a group of prim and proper directors behind outright told they could shove off. If it was anything like the time she had told off one of her coworkers for wanting to push out any colored students from the college, then she could imagine several faces going through some very interesting colors.

"…Thank you, Thomson," Annette said after a moment of silence. Her words were quiet and subdued, but she poured as much sincerity into them as she could.

"I only did my job," Thomson said with a slight wave of his hand as if the entire situation wasn't a complete disaster. In her own humble opinion, Thomson had demonstrated far more heroism and bravery than any of the capes that had shown up. They had powers that most people could scarcely dream of having and they still ran from Nilbog, but Thomson and his PRT squad? They stood their ground and spat into the face of death without a moment's hesitation.

 _If only the capes had even a fraction of that bravery,_ the little voice in the back of her mind whispered.

"Then I suppose it's time I do mine," Annette said as she pulled herself up from her seat. The chosen design of her messenger Spartoi flashed through her head as she made her way to the door. She could feel her power already pooling around her hands like an eager puppy, just waiting for her to release it.

"After this is all done the PRT boys and I are going to buy you some drinks," Thomson said as she pulled the door open.

"I'll be there," Annette said with a slight smile. She had never really been much of a drinker, and it wasn't like she needed to drink anymore, but the thought of doing something that didn't balance the weight of hundreds of lives on her shoulders sounded nice.

But as nice as it sounded she couldn't afford to think about the future right now, she had to focus on the present. The hallways were surprisingly devoid of life as she marched her way back out into the open. While they hadn't been lively, the experience of trying to get three hundred people to live together for a few days did give the school a cramped feeling.

Annette winced as the harsh glare of the sun greeted her. She shrouded her eyes in the shadow of her hand as she looked over to the portal. The second to last group shuffled their way through the silvery film that connected one point of reality to the next. Just as the group breached the surface of the portal, Annette caught sight of Cindy's bob of black hair as she squeezed her way past the man in front of her.

As their forms disappeared through the portal Annette couldn't help but fear what would happen to the girl once the Protectorate found out that she had powers. Annette glanced down to her hands as black tar oozed from her palms and onto the ground. Her power had given her the ability to kill Nilbog's monsters but not to save the ones she loved. Cindy had gained the ability to burn everything away except for the very monsters she was trying to kill.

Were all powers so soul-crushingly ironic?

Annette clenched one of her fists, the tar-like substance squelching between her fingers as it slipped through the cracks. Despite its seemingly caustic nature, it felt surprisingly jello like as it was being squeezed through her fingers. It was actually quite pretty with the contrast of her bone white skin beneath it.

"Cad-Annette," Legend's voice called out. Annette looked up to see the Protectorate Blaster standing a few feet away, eyeing her newly forming tar pit with a wary gaze. Annette ignored his discomfort as she allowed the substance to burn away at the plant life on the ground as it spread out.

"We're going to be having an onsite briefing, we need you to come," Legend said. It didn't sound like a request, and as much as Annette wanted to tell the man off for thinking he could order her around, now wasn't the time for such petty displays of defiance. Not when so many people's lives were on the line.

As the last of the corrosive fluid killed off what little grass remained Annette cut off her power, allowing the last of the sloppy substance to slide off her fingers and pool together. She could already feel the hatred churning and growing in the pool, the first of the creatures she created was already starting to form.

Whatever was going to happen to Cindy and the Protectorate she could deal with in the future. But if they didn't stop Nilbog there might not be too much of a future to look forward to in the first place.

"Very well," Annette said as she wiped a few errant droplets of the substance from her hands. As much as she despised the idea of being a personal attack dog, there were more immediate concerns to deal with. Once everything was said and done she would put the fear of god into the people who thought they could put her on a leash, but until then she would work with them.

They had a monster to slay.

* * *

 **Special Thanks to my Patrons:** Velzon, Sphinxes, Sanjay and xxpowerxx1qz


	5. Heroes and Monsters

**Enjoy!**

Heroes and Monsters

Armsmaster couldn't help but stare at the deceptively tranquil landscape around him from behind his sealed helmet with a sickened expression. The team he had been assigned to had been making their way down one of Ellisburg's main streets for some time now, and they had yet to meet anything but a passing resistance. What few goblins they had encountered that hadn't scurried off back into the urban jungle were quickly dispatched with ease.

It was a far cry from the previous days of slugging it out for hours over half a block. He had brought it up with Richter, his team leader, and the Blaster had agreed with his assessment that something was very wrong. The validation of his concerns made the servos of his suit groan in protest as he tightened his grip around his trust halberd as he scanned the surrounding buildings for any sign of Nilbog's monsters.

Many of them had simply been blasted down after they lost a few heroes to full building searches, even with a squad of Spartoi to assist them. There were just too many places for Nilbog's goblins to hide in such an enclosed space to effectively search for them. Even with Spartoi assistance, the goblins had been getting better and better at hiding from their hunters.

Armsmaster supposed that it was a testament to how hellish and strange this last week had been that he no longer blinked an eye at the black furred inhuman creatures that followed them around. He had been initially hesitant to the idea of placing his trust in an independent, freshly triggered cape. Particularly when so many parahumans were involved, but they had proven to be invaluable to their effort and had saved his squad's lives on more than one occasion.

Armsmaster allowed himself to glance over to his left, towards one of the wolves that had been assigned to them. A huge crack ran down the bone white armor on the top of its skull where it had taken a blow that would have surely killed the parahuman that it had been intended for. Yet despite what must have been a debilitating blow, the creature had continued to fight the much larger and bettered armed goblin until it received assistance from one of its larger brethren.

Armsmaster brought his attention back the front of the group, where said creature had taken point.

Compared to the other Spartoi assigned to his group it was huge, easily towering over everyone by a full person, if not more so. Horse like hooves that could have crushed a man's ribcage clicked against the asphalt, echoing in the eerie silence of the street. A pair of clawed feet dug into the ground with each step in the front of its form, ripping up the street as it meandered down with an almost relaxed air to its movements. The creature's horse like body was littered with broken teeth and claws that had tried and failed to pierce the creature's thick hide. It's long and sinuous arms lung almost limply by its sides, masking the creature's true strength. Claws as long as his arms and as sharp as his blade scraped the surface of the street.

Armsmaster shifted his grip on his halberd as one of the creature's two head turned around to face the group. An all too human skull stared at the group as a pair of glowing red eyes lit up its empty sockets. Twin horns curved up out of the head, giving the creature another measure of protection alongside the rows of spikes that ran down its human torso.

"That thing still gives me the creeps," one of the capes behind him whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. Armsmaster might have been tempted to reprimand him if he didn't agree with him. There as something about the creature that stroked his more primitive desires to flee in the face of a much stronger predator. Every move the creature made, though seemingly harmless, all held a certain amount of restrained violence to them, as if the creature couldn't stand the thought of not fighting.

He had been curious when he had first seen the creature as to what it had been based on and had taken a brief search on the internet with the assistance of his suit's onboard computer.  
He had found that it had been based off a demonic being called a Nuckelavee from Orcadian mythology on the Scottish Isles. It was considered to be one of the most fearsome and dangerous creatures of their mythology and left nothing but devastation and ruin in its wake. And frankly, after watching it tear apart goblins with a wild abandon that made even the most violent heroes in his group give pause, he felt that it was a rather appropriate design for the creature.

Even after almost a week of fighting alongside with the Nuckelavee, it was still more than a little unsettling to look at. It's deceptively jerky movements felt alien, and its human-like features only made it even more so. The facsimile of a ribcage that covered its lower body looked like something out of those old horror movies that Hollywood had made before the Slaughterhouse ruined them all. But the Spartoi had proved its worth on numerous occasions, and he was willing to put aside his discomfort if it meant bringing Nilbog to justice.

As they continued their march through the empty and silent street, Armsmaster couldn't help but feel disgusted by the sheer lack of life before them.

What had once been the small but thriving community of Ellisburg was now a dead town. A lifeless mockery of what had once been a well-knit and peaceful community was now cold and empty. Cars were left scattered along the streets like discarded toys left to rust. The birds that might have flown through the air singing songs were long gone, either dead from Nilbog or having fled the town in fright. The only sounds that remained were those of battle and death. In the far distance, Armsmaster could hear another volley from Legend and other Blasters level part of a street, but the loud booming did little to push back the eerie silence that had taken hold of the town.

Armsmaster had walked in more dead cities than he cared to remember. There was nothing quite as sobering as watching an entire city crumble around you as hundreds of buildings were torn asunder by a rampaging monster. As thick plumes of toxic smoke filled the air and darkened the very sky while waves tore through deserted streets with the force of a truck. As screams of those being ripped apart by monsters in human flesh echoed throughout the sky like a symphony of terror.

He had seen cities and towns killed by monsters and men so many times during his tenure as a Protectorate hero, and each one was a soul crushing as the last without fail. No matter how many civilians he saved or criminals he put away, at least every three months he was reminded that he wasn't doing enough. The lifeless eyes of thousands of corpses would stare back at him in an accusing manner as if he was somehow personally responsible for their deaths. He knew that it was just his head playing tricks on him, but it didn't make it any less unsettling.  
Nor did his constant exposure to such places of death and destruction inoculate him against the horror of Ellisburg.

The gravel crunched beneath his foot as they passed by a small sweet store that might have once hosted a gaggle of children, but had now fallen into disrepair. Windows were shattered from goblins searching for any form of biomass they could grab, leaving nothing behind but a corpse of what it had once been.

Ellisburg was different from all the previous dead cities that he had visited. It was almost deceptive in its appearance. There weren't ruins that dotted the land or smashed buildings that tracked the progress of an Endbringer. There weren't piles of the dead and dying left by the Slaughterhouse 9 as twisted mockeries of art. It was as if the entire town had simply got up and left, leaving no trace behind of their existence.

In its own way that was even more horrifying than finding a room full of Grey Boy victims.

To see an entire town of thousands reduced to a few hundred with little visible damage was unsettling. Doors had been smashed off their hinges and windows were left shattered, but he had seen all of those things in Brockton Bay before as the result of some minor skirmishes. There wasn't any sign of some grand struggle between the goblins and the townsfolk. What resistance could they have provided in the face of a horror like this? What would have happened if Nilbog had triggered in someplace more populated like New York or L.A.? That thought alone was enough to send chills down his spine and made him adjust his grip on his halberd as he fiddled with the controls as he tried to keep his mind off such things.

The Protectorate Tinker shook off such dark thoughts as he tried to focus on the situation at hand. His HUD monitor was still in progress, but it was functional enough to do its job. The gray circle on the corner of his screen was covered in red dots that signified enemy movement. While it was difficult to tell exactly how far they were from him, it was good enough to give himself a warning. It had already saved his life more than once.

But as useful as it was, the fact remained that he wasn't going to tell Mouse Protector that he had actually given her crazy concept of stealing ideas from video games any credence. If he did he would never hear the end of it.

A cracking sound drew Armsmaster out of his musings and drew his attention to his left. He swung his halberd up into a defensive position even as he saw his fellow heroes tense up in the corner of his eye. He gave the creature that had dragged itself out of the line of bushes a critical gaze.

It was small and childlike in appearance as it scurried around on all fours, but Armsmaster had learned not to underestimate any of Nilbog's creations. A series of scratch marks on the chest plate of his armor stood as evidence that even the smallest of his twisted creations could be deadly.

The goblin eyed him with more intelligence than Armsmaster was comfortable with. Needle-like fangs glinted in the sunlight as a serpentine tongue squeezed its way through. It walked forward on its knuckles as it's back tensed in coiled anticipation. Experience had taught him that the small creatures liked to jump for the face. As anticipated, the creature reacted exactly as Armsmaster thought it would, charging forward on all fours with speeds that were upwards of twenty miles per hour. More of its monstrous brethren of varying shapes and sizes joined its charge, tearing through the line of foliage like the horde of hell.

The earth shook as the capes beside him unloaded their various powers onto the mass of charging monsters. Some were frozen solid by blasts of cryokinetic energy close to absolute zero while others were literally shaken apart by waves of vibrations strong enough to rend steel. Compared to the array of powers his group had Armsmaster's halberd didn't seem all that impressive, but he wielded it with a deadly accuracy that made sure that any goblin that entered his reach didn't live to regret it.

As the goblins tore out from the bushes like creatures possessed, the Spartoi fell upon them with an equal, if not greater ferocity.

The first goblin leaped at him just as he had predicted, its claws outstretched to try and rip his face off. Had he not been wearing an armored helmet he might have felt more threatened, but as it was, even if the creature did reach him it would take some time for it to get through the reinforced plating.

But it didn't even get close to having that chance.

The goblin let out a pitiful wail as his halberd sliced the creature in two. The monster's torso fell to the ground alongside its legs while an off colored green fluid seeped into the ground. It's disturbingly human-looking face was frozen in an expression of terror as claws sharp enough to cleave flesh from bone twitched uselessly against the ground.

Armsmaster's brief victory was short-lived as he found himself face to face with another charging goblin. But before he could even start swinging his halberd to face the beast it exploded.

As Armsmaster blinked in surprise he realized that it hadn't literally exploded, but rather it had been torn in two with such force that its entrails and body parts were thrown all across the street. The full brunt of the Nuckelavee's body had smashed into the much smaller creature, popping it like a grape under a car wheel. The Spartoi's arms moved with such blinding speed that even with his enhanced cameras couldn't keep up with its motions. Each goblin that entered its range died almost instantly, like grains of wheat before a thrasher.

One of the faster goblins actually managed to make it to the Nuckelavee's body, but like all the others before it, its jaws and claws were just too weak for it to puncture the creature's thick hide. With a motion that might have been considered casual if not for the death and destruction surrounding them, the Nuckelavee picked the small goblin up with one of its clawed hands and threw it. The raccoon-sized monster slammed into a nearby building and splattered against the brick wall as if it had been hit by a truck.  
"Circle up," Richter shouted to the squad as he let loose his powers. Shockwaves of vibrational energy slammed into goblins, literally ripping them apart into tiny pieces.

Armsmaster and his fellows moved to follow the order as the Nuckelavee continued to tear through the assembled goblins. They had practiced this strategy multiple times over the last few days. They would let the Spartoi engage the goblins directly while they encircled them, cutting the goblins off from any escape routes while providing supporting fire. It maximized enemy casualties while lessening their own. Even the wolves had learned to follow the orders once given, allowing the Nuckelavee room to rip apart goblins without restraint.

It was almost pitiful to watch as the pint-sized goblins that had helped kill off and entire town was mowed down with little to no effort by the much larger Spartoi. A few of them tried to escape, but they were quickly cut down by parahuman powers or dagger-like teeth. Armsmaster was tempted to let his guard down just a fraction as the last of the goblin's remains fell to the ground twitching while the Nuckelavee idly chewed on one of their heads. But as he brought his halberd down from his read position his sensors screamed at him to move.

He dove to the side just as a blur shot out from the bushes, impaling one of the unfortunate Spartoi that had been standing right next to him. The beast howled in pain as the spike of solid bone pulled it back into the bushes.

"Pull back," Richter shouted, though it proved to be almost unnecessary as the capes were already pulling back away from the bushes as something pushed its way out. Branches and vines snapped as a much larger goblin emerged from the bushes. It shoulders were about at the same height as the Nuckelavee's, but it possessed a much bulkier form than the Spartoi.

Clawed paws that were about the size of his torso crushed the remains of its brethren as it eyed the assembly before it. Its tail weaved in the air behind it, the smoking corpse of the wolf still being flung through the air almost effortlessly. A feline-like face snarled at them, prompting the capes to gather behind the Spartoi. The beast shifted its plated shoulders with an almost eager anticipation as the two groups stared at each other, neither one willing to make the first move.

Then the Nuckelavee charged.

The massive beast crashed into the goblin with the force of a freight train, but the creature's additional bulk kept it from being flung to the side like a broken toy. Even so, it had been enough to force its front feet up into the air, leaving it desperately clawing for a surface as to regain its balance. The Nuckelavee's horse-like skull screeched in pain as talons the size of steak knives ripped into its form. But even despite that, the Nuckelavee continued its assault on the goblin without a single misstep.

Then without warning, the Nuckelavee let out a shuttering breath, disgorging a black mist that fell onto the goblin like a blanket of dark fog. Armsmaster winced as the monster let out a screech as the poisonous fumes started their journey through its cardiovascular system. It wouldn't kill the creature outright like it had during the beginning of the campaign, as Nilbog had apparently been improving his monsters. But either because he couldn't or simply didn't have enough time, he hadn't been able to entirely immunize his creatures to the poisonous breath. The creature shuddered as its strength failed for a moment, allowing the Nuckelavee to push it further back and letting the wolves join in the fight.

Most of the wolves couldn't get a good grip on the creature or were swept aside by its powerful tail as the goblin desperately thrashed around trying to escape the Nuckelavee's grip, but one or two managed to get some pretty good bites on the goblin's exposed legs, enticing a series of pained howls from the creature.

His squad joined in the offensive as parahuman powers were thrown at the huge goblin. A blast from a cryokinetic froze over the creature's tail, and with some assistance from Richter, the goblin's deadly weapon shattered into a thousand pieces. Armsmaster watched as his teammates proved their worth by tearing apart huge tracts of flesh from the creature, all whilst cursing at himself for having neglected the integration of ranged equipment into his gear for so long.

His halberd was a powerful tool that he had trained extensively with, but it lacked a true ranged option. He had never really seen the need for what would require an extensive refit since most of the villains of Brockton Bay preferred melee. A grave mistake on his part, and one that he would have to rectify soon enough, but for now he was just going to have to improvise.

He aimed the tip of his halberd towards the creature's head, and with a flick of his thumb a titanium grappling hook shot out and pierced the creature in the eye. The creature redoubled its screams and efforts to disengage the battle, but it found itself beset on all sides.

Armsmaster could hear his servos squealing in protest as he tried to pull the creature's head away from the Nuckelavee's exposed front. He dismissed the overheat warnings with a flick of his eye while adding his suit's auxiliary power to his arms. He knew his suit wasn't designed to move a creature that probably weighed as much as a rhinoceros, but if he could just keep it from attacking for a few seconds…

"Legs," he grunted to his squadmates. They responded almost immediately, switching the focus of their attacks to the creature's exposed legs. Though tough, under the combination of almost half a dozen parahuman powers they melted away like steel under a plasma torch.

The goblin howled as it lost its footing, and fell to the ground as the Nuckelavee came upon it like a maddened beast. Blood and viscera were thrown aside as the beast's claws tore flesh from flesh as it released an unearthly screech of victory. The wolves joined in, tearing whatever chunks of armored flesh apart that they could. And with one last pitiful wail, the goblin slumped to the ground dead.

There was an almost collective sigh of relief from the group as the spark of light in the creature's soulless eyes faded from existence. Armsmaster allowed his strained servos to finally relax as he took in damage reports. Nothing too bad, but he wasn't going to want to strain them like that again anytime soon.

"This is Alpha-3, we need a cleanup crew at our location," he heard Richter say over the radio. Given how Nilbog needed biomass to create more creatures one of their primary objects was to limit his ability to collect from his dead minions. The Nuckelavee and the remaining wolves were already munching on the creature's remains, but having them try to devour the corpses themselves would take far too long to be effective. Which meant they had to wait for another group of Spartoi to come and finish up the job.

Armsmaster resisted the urge to take a seat as he bore witness to the sickening experience of a group of monsters eating another group of monsters. If he hadn't already seen worse the view might have made his stomach churn. Judging by the way some of the parahumans looked a little queasy they were in agreement.

"That was awesome!"

Armsmaster turned to face the orange-helmeted woman who uttered those words. Though he couldn't see it through her sealed visor, he was betting that she had a huge grin on her face. Residual lighting from her power crackled up and down her pink armored arms, and for the briefest moments, he wanted to shout at her.

What could possibly be "awesome" about any of this? They were fighting beings that in all likelihood had once been living people, and she had the gall to find entertainment from this?

But as he prepared the open his mouth he noticed the slight shaking of her gloved hands. The angry retort died on his lips as he realized that this was a coping mechanism for her. I reminded him of Mouse Protector if he had, to be honest, and a cold chill swept up his spine at the thought of those two _ever_ meeting each other.

 _I think I'd rather fight Nilbog all over again_ , he thought with a gulp at the mere concept of those two joining forces.

* * *

Legend felt his muscles sag in relief at the sight of Protectorate heroes and Spartoi alike encircling Nilbog's workshop and base of operations. Apparently, the madman had decided to take the town hall as his fortress. With his perfect vision, Legend could see that windows and doors had been barricaded in the face of the oncoming horde, and goblins of varying types climbing up and down the walls of the building. He could only begin to imagine what horrors lurked inside of the building, just waiting for an unsuspecting hero to fall right into their jaws.

There had been some discontent in the ranks that he hadn't just flown above the city hall and blasted it until nothing remained by a smoking crater. Legend could understand their frustration. Even with Annette's Spartoi to assist their push they had lost one too many good heroes. He wanted to see Nilbog pay for his crimes as much as the next person, but there was just too much risk involved.

They couldn't afford the chance that Nilbog could somehow escape the destruction of the city hall and flee somewhere else to start anew. Several of his creatures had been capable of tunneling, and it wouldn't be inconceivable that he had some sort of escape route planned out if they came down on him too hard. Even though several of Annette's Spartoi had proven themselves capable of tracking down said tunneling creatures, it was a risk they didn't want to take. They had to let him think he had a possibility of victory so that he didn't try anything drastic, like releasing a plague into the atmosphere.

Watchdog had all but confirmed that such an act would be well within the range of his powers and that the consequences of such an act could lead to the death of millions.

And to top that all off, they had no idea whether Nilbog was keeping any prisoners in his fortress. As slim as the possibility was, there was a chance that some of the Ellisburg townsfolk could be trapped inside the building with the like of Nilbog and his creations. He knew that Alexandria didn't put much stock in his hope, but Legend knew she hadn't been putting much faith in the possibility of a better future since Hero's death.

A fool's hope it might have been, but Legend would rather have a fool's hope than none at all.

The Protectorate Blaster turned back towards the Spartoi that had been following him. The strange jellyfish-like creature had been a boon to coordination between the heroes and the Spartoi. Even so, Legend couldn't help but find the single glowing yellow eye discomforting with its utter lack of facial features. There was just something completely alien about the way it seemed to look out at the world. Through it wasn't really designed to direct engagements, a set of blood-red tentacles floated beneath its bulbous form with a deceptive fragility. While the tentacles were far weaker than the average human's arm, they were coated with a dangerous neurotoxin that had proven particularly effective in killing of Nilbog's minions.

But despite that, its primary advantage was that it allowed direct communication between the Protectorate capes and the assembled Spartoi instead of having to filter all messages and commands through Annette.

"Get everyone to start encircling the building, we don't make a move until we've cut off his escape routes," Legend ordered, his voice carrying over his ear piece as well. The creature shuttered, something that Legend had seen enough to recognize as a signal of compliance. The jellyfish-like Spartoi started to move towards the ground with a surprising amount of speed for something so frail looking. But as Legend turned his attention back to the city hall building he realized that something was off about the scene before him.

Where were all the plants?

In the immediate vicinity of the building and everything about five hundred yards from it, there was no greenery to be seen. Trees that would have once hung over the sideway had been uprooted, leaving behind pits that dotted the area. Bushes had been ripped from the ground and even the grass had been torn apart. The entire area looked lifeless and barren. Legend could feel a cold chill run down his spine of the thought of all that biomass falling into Nilbog's hands. But if it had, where was it all?

They hadn't seen anything that indicated that Nilbog had that much material to work with if anything his horde had been thinning since they had managed to push into the inner city. Legend moved to activate his earpiece and get some input from the Thinkers back at their base of operations when the ground shook.

Almost everyone stopped what they were doing as the ground trembled with the force of an earthquake. Even the Spartoi's march was forced to grind to a halt as sections of buildings crumbled underneath the pressure being released, clogging their routes.

The only things that didn't seem perturbed by the shaking were Nilbog's goblins, who jumped up and down and released unearthly screeches into the air. It sounded as if they were the chorus of the damned. But even as they seemed to celebrate what was going on, they were fleeing the building. The jumped from wall and windows in a mad dash. Not to attack but instead, they looked like they were trying to run away.  
Then the building broke.

Brick and concrete shot up into the sky as the front of the city hall was torn apart, not from the shaking, but rather as if something was trying to get _out_.

Legend could feel his fear curling in his gut as a massive clawed paw the size of a few trucks tore its way out of the rubble. Talons longer than he was gouged the earth as it forced its way out of the collapsing building. Scales thicker than tank armor glimmered in the noonday sun as a sickly green. Dust and rubble-clogged the air, briefly blocking the creature from view, but even then, its massive form cast a black shadow over the assembled forces. As the dust finally started to settle and the last of the building fell to the ground Legend finally got a good look at the creature.

A crocodilian-like snout curved through the air as its head whipped around, as it took in its surroundings. Sickly yellow eyes the size of a person glared out at the world, causing parahumans to tremble in their boots at the sight of the mighty beast. Teeth that looked sharp enough to carve up one of Annette's elephants protruded from its jaws as its acidic saliva dripped down them, burning away at the lifeless earth.

A pair of horns erupted from above its glaring eyes and encircled its head like a twisted crown of bone. Three rows of spikes ran down its back, covering it in a thin and makeshift layer of armor. It's long and sinuous body shrugged rubble that could have crushed a man off with all the effort that one might give a fly. Its tail looked just as dangerous as its front, the rows of spines converging to form a spiked tail that reminded him of a stegosaurus.

Legend felt this throat go dry at the sheer size of the creature. While Annette's elephant like Spartoi was comparable to _Behemoth_ , this monster was even bigger. He wouldn't have been surprised if it could fit half of said Spartoi into its mouth with one snap. Smaller goblins danced up and down its form like monstrous ticks, occasionally falling to the ground as they lost their grip on the creature's scaled form.

For a long moment, nobody moved. The assembled Spartoi still tried to shove their way through the shocked parahumans, but they were stymied by the rubble that now blocked their path to the beast. The Protectorate capes stared at the monstrous dragon-like goblin with no small amount of terror as it's salivating jaws snapped up and down.

As Legend opened his mouth to give an order he noticed something on the very top of the creature's skull that had been obscured by its horns. Right in the center of the creature's head was a round bulbous looking sac. Even with his perfect vision, Legend could barely see through the off colored pimple like structure, but he was able to make out the general shape of a man. Legend's eyes widened in surprise, but before he could act on this new information or inform his comrades the dragon threw its head back.

And it _roared._

What few windows that had still been intact shattered under the intense pressure even as the ground shook once more and stones split. A few fliers who had gotten a bit too close were tossed out of the sky like ragdolls in a hurricane and splattered against the ground in a sickening display of gore and death. Ears were split as humans and monsters alike howled in pain, though whatever noise they made was drowned out by the all-encompassing sound. Legend was struck by a hot wind of malevolence as the dragon's jaws opened wide enough to swallow two city busses whole. Had he been a lesser man he might have quailed at the monster's display of sheer power, but he had faced monsters and demons before and he wouldn't back down now. But even as his conviction held firm, he could feel the dragon's inhuman roar shake the very bones in his body as it threatened to knock him out of the sky.

It was a roar of rage. A roar of nigh-incalculable hatred.

The roar of an angry god.

Nilbog had finally joined the fight.

* * *

 **Special Thanks to my Patrons:** Velzon, Sphinxes, Sanjay and xxpowerxx1qz


	6. Grimm Vengence

**Enjoy!**

Grimm Vengeance

"Fall back and regroup! Fall back and regroup!" Legend practically screamed over the radio as the dragon charged forward. The monstrous creature moved with a speed that was belied by its sheer size and mass. Each step it took left indents in the earth and cracked concrete with weight alone as it moved to crush the mass of parahumans and Spartoi in its path.

The assembled heroes needed little prompting. They turned around almost immediately and parted like the Red Sea in an effort to escape the dragon's wrath. The Spartoi, on the other hand, held no such fear in their minds, and instead charged towards with a suicidal rage. The black mass crashed into the dragon like a wave against the shore. Some of the unluckier ones died almost instantly they were crushed under the dragon's feet. Some other managed to leap up onto the creature's massive toes but found themselves fighting the smaller goblins that roamed the dragon's form preventing them from inflicting any damage. Not that they were inflicting much damage at all. Claws and teeth either bounced off the creature's thick armor or caused so little harm in the grand scheme of things they might have as well been papercuts.

The dragon was utterly ignoring the Spartoi that fell before it. Instead, it smashed through them without a second thought, crashing through buildings and burying creatures and people alike in rubble and ruins.

Legend fired a laser at the dragon's shoulder in an effort to cripple it. The beam sliced through the armor as if it didn't even exist, which to the matter disintegration beam it didn't, but if the dragon noticed it at all he couldn't tell. Without even so much as stumbling the dragon smashed aside another wave of pitiful resistance from the still panicking parahumans below. Legend charged up another laser, only to stop at the sight before him.

The manhole size wound that he had left in the dragon's shoulder had almost completely disappeared, the hole knitting itself together with an almost supernatural speed. Legend bit back a curse at the realization of what was happening. If that was in fact Nilbog riding this beast that meant that he could directly manipulate the creature's form all throughout combat. He could repair grievous wounds with nothing more than a stray thought, or worse if the situation became unsalvageable he could turn the entire creature into a plague and kill everyone.

But as the dragon moved forward, unimpeded by the buildings in its way, something finally made a dent. Something finally slowed it down. A pair of Annette's massive elephants plowed into the creature's front legs with enough force to shatter a building. The creature stumbled from its loss of balance, but its weight was great enough that it was already recovering when Alexandria joined the fray. The brute package that defined brute packages slammed into the creature's lower neck.

Legend could hear the deafening crack as scales and bones broke under the heroine's fists. The already off balance monster toppled forward with a wail, crushing buildings and monsters underneath its great weight. Legend fired another volley at the downed beast, but instead of outright destroying the creature's flesh he brought his lasers down to temperatures that rivaled absolute zero. Steam crackled in the sky as the very air dropped down to arctic level temperatures as his laser struck the beast's hide. Flesh and scales froze over almost immediately, trapping them in a thick layer of ice. For a brief moment, Legend feared that the ice would be shaken off with the same speed that his previous attack had been, but to his surprise, the ice remained. Even as the scales that had been broken under Alexandria's attack knitted themselves back together the frozen flesh remained in place without a hit of healing.

Legend allowed himself a vicious smile that was totally at odds with his desired image. While Nilbog appeared to be more than capable of manipulating dead flesh he couldn't touch the frozen flesh. The ice crystals were most likely keeping him from having direct contact with the biomass, making it impossible for him to manipulate. Legend let loose another beam, freezing a portion of the dragon's back. But even as the ice crystallized over the scales, smaller goblins moved in and started chipping away at the ice.

"I want anyone with freezing capabilities on point," Legend shouted over his radio as he blasted a few of the goblins away. "Everyone else, we need to contain this thing, we can't let Nilbog escape."

Legend suspected that's what this fight was about. Even as his dragon rose back to its feet it seemed relatively disinterested in trying to kill everything around it. Nilbog only seemed to be interested in fighting if his path was obstructed. Spartoi that jumped from buildings on top of the beast's back were utterly ignored as it plowed down the street like a freight train. Everything that was foolish enough to stand in its path was crushed underneath its talons with all the care a child might give and ant. The only things that appeared to actually provide any meaningful resistance were the elephant Spatori, and they weren't numerous.

As the leader of the Protectorate flew a bit faster to keep himself above the beast's head he was given a bird's eye view of the people below. Specks of color were running around in a desperate effort to reorganize in the face of something this powerful. Legend couldn't even begin to imagine what they were thinking as they stared down a monster that was at least a hundred times their size. Even from his aerial view, he found the thought of fighting the monster to be a harrowing one. To be there on the ground? To hear and feel the creature's footsteps as it smashed aside buildings like broken toys and choked the air with dust and rubble?

He couldn't even begin to imagine how brave those heroes down there were.

* * *

Annette watched on the monitors as the Protectorate parahumans scattered in the face of the dragon like a pack of rats before a lion. Though as much as she hated to admit it, she could understand why they would flee from something like that. The dragon was magnitudes larger than anything they had faced previously.

Annette managed to tear her eyes away from the screens to watch the controlled chaos unfold around her. PRT coordinators and Protectorate Thinkers were running from station to station as they tried to coordinate their forces on the ground. Orders were being given to squad leaders while strategies were being considered.

She could hardly claim herself to be an expert on warfare, but she was willing to bet that 'kill the dragon' was pretty high on that list of suggestions. But as she watched she couldn't help but feel a certain amount of dread of how easily the monster was plowing through their forces. Only Alexandria and Legend seemed to be doing any real damage, and even they were having trouble. The dragon was just so large that what would have normally been a crippling or lethal attack was little more than a bee sting to it.

Some of her large creatures had managed to slow the best down, but that was all they could do. They just didn't have the power or strength to get past what was undoubtedly a very thick layer of armor. They needed something bigger.

Much bigger.

Annette rose up and walked out of the chaotic tent. The discord of voices faded into the background as her feet crunched along dirt and gravel. Her spawning pits spread out across the landscape like festering wounds. All life around the pits seemed to wither and die as if they were a plague. Annette supposed she should have cared about such things, but she couldn't bring herself to feel much apprehension over what her powers were doing to the environment. Not so long as the threat of Nilbog loomed over the horizon.

She came to a stop in front of one particular pool. Even compared to the ones that she used to spawn her elephants this one was massive. It was easily two or three times the size of anything that she had created previously and had taken her several days to make. Even then she wasn't entirely satisfied with its size, but right now she was on a time limit.

Annette allowed her power to flow from her hands like a waterfall. Black sludge as thick as tar poured out onto the pit, adding to the creation's size. She could feel her power strain against her as she pushed herself to her limits, adding more and more sludge into the pool. Annette grit her teeth as the flow threatened to give way, but she pushed on through as she tried to ignore the growing migraine.

"Come on," she ground out as her arms started to shake. It felt as if the whole of her form was wreathed in fire as she dumped the entirety of her reserves and beyond in the creature that she envisioned in her mind.

"Ugh!" Annette screamed as the strain finally became too much for her to bear. The flow of the dark substance cut off immediately as her arms swung to her sides limply. It felt as if a thousand pins and needles were being jabbed into them over and over again. Looking to see if her suffering had brought any dividends Annette was overcome with a wave of disappointment. Despite her best efforts, the pool remained as blank and motionless as a grave.

Annette let out a sigh as she watched a few other pools spawn their own various creatures. She had hoped pushing more in would allow the creature to finish forming, but it appeared that…

Annette paused her musings as a ripple formed on the surface of the pit in question. One became two, then three and more. The bone white woman could feel a smile start to stretch out across her lips as her creation started to pull its way out of the pool. As the creature's mass erupted from the pool Annette was forced to back up as globs of the substance slid off its skin. Claws the length of spears dug into the earth as the creature pulled it from out of the pit.

A full-blown grin spread out across her face as her newest creation towered over her like a titan of old. "Now we have a fight," she said through her unnerving smile.

* * *

Legend grunted as he let loose another volley at the dragon. The vicious whip-like tail that had slain so many heroes shattered as the weight of the ice crystallizing on it became too much to bear. But even as the mass of frozen flesh crashed into the ground he could see more forming around what little ice still remained. Even with all he had learned with fighting the dragon Nilbog was adapting as well.

The madman had learned a few tricks to lessen the impact of his attacks by having flesh form around the wound while the ice melted instead of trying to heal it directly. What had once been a relatively smooth and even surface was now lumpy and covered in patchworked repairs. Every time they seemed to gain an advantage on the beast Nilbog changed up his plans.

Originally the monster had spewed out a concentrated stream of acid that could burn through steel as if it were paper. But once a few heroes had figured out how to negate the acid they dragon's attack became an aerosol dispersed gas that rotted everything it touched. Only the Spartoi had remained unaffected.

"This isn't working," Alexandria said as she pulled up next to him. Her tone was virtually emotionless and detached, a development that had occurred ever since Hero's death. They had all been affected by their friend's passing in some way, but Rebecca had been hit the hardest. Legend was willing to bet it had to do with that ring he had found in Clark's possessions when they had been sorting through what of his they wanted to keep. He hadn't had a chance to bring it up, and now certainly wasn't an appropriate time, but he did hope that he could find a good time to talk about it. Rebecca's recent slide emotionally had them all worried.

"If we could just pin him down…" Legend trailed off as he tried to let some sort of plan bubble to the surface. The Nilbog in the now popped pimple had apparently been nothing more than a decoy meant to kill anyone unlucky enough to spring the trap. Fortunately, one of Annette's raven Spartoi had taken the brunt of the damage, but it was still disheartening to realize that the battle wasn't over.

Legend suspected that the madman was somewhere deep in the creature's chest, but trying to keep the dragon still enough was easier said than done. For a beast of its size, it moved with a surprising amount of agility and dexterity. Add to a strength and durability enough to throw Alexandria herself to the side and you had one terrifying monster.

"We need to-" Alexandria started to say before she was cut short.

 _SREECH!_

The dragon beneath them seemed to pause as the sound washed over the battlefield. Even as the noise grated his ears Legend couldn't help but smile as he turned his head over to where the screech was coming from.

To any of the people on the ground it might as well have been nothing but a black blur on the horizon, but with his vision, he could see every detail. Red membranes carved through the air as its powerful wings carried its huge weight. Spikes of white bone dotted its armored back while a pair of clawed feet that could have crushed tanks hung from its form. Teeth the size of men glinted in the sunlight beneath its armored helm while a pair of horns shielded its neck. Six red eyes glared out at the world as it made a beeline for its target.

It was a monster straight out of legend, the dragon that sought to end the kingdom and burn the world. But to Legend, it couldn't have been a more welcoming sight.

 _SREECH!_

The Spartoi roared again as is passed over the battlefield and circled Nilbog's mount. The two dragons seemed to almost glare at each other as the battle came to a stop. Even the smaller Spartoi seemed to come to a stop as their larger brethren prepared to join the fight. The thick blanket of silence descended over the battlefield as the two opposing forces came to a stop. They watched on with baited breath as the two draconian lifeforms started each other down like a pair of gunslingers from the old west.

 _SREECH!_

 _ROAR!_

The world rocked once more as both dragons released deafening challenges to each other. Even as high up as he was Legend couldn't help but wince as his entire body vibrated under the pressure. He couldn't even begin to imagine what they were experiencing below, but from the drowned-out howls and screams, it wasn't pleasant.

Buildings cracked and crumbled as the Spartoi dragon swept forward. It's wings carved through brick and steel like a razor blade even as its opponent charged forward. Legend watched as people and buildings alike were crushed under the goblin's talons as it moved to meet its challenger.

The collision of the two titans produced an almost physical shockwave as teeth and talons met each other. Though the Spartoi dragon was smaller and less dense that its goblin counterpart, its ability to fly provided a huge advantage over its combatant. The dragon flew in and out of the goblin's long reach, proving to be difficult to latch onto. But Nilbog's creation wasn't entirely helpless without a set of wings, and during one of the dragon's swoops, it managed to catch its opponent's tail within its maw.

The dragon screeched as streams of black tar blood ran down the goblin's throat. Instead of panicking and trying to fly away the Spatori dived down, hurdling the entirety of its weight against the goblin's skull. The sound of the two beasts colliding was akin to a pair of icebergs smashing into each other. The earth itself shook as the goblin's form was smashed into the ground by the sheer weight of its enemy. Even as the goblin tried to reorient itself the dragon latched teeth that could have been swords onto its neck. The goblin wailed in agony as the dragon dug in, tearing flesh from muscle and bone, pinning the goblin to the ground.

"Aim for the legs!" Legend shouted over the radio as he moved in. With the goblin pinned down, they finally had a chance to do some real damage. Powers of all types smashed into the goblin's limbs, cracking scales and destroying muscles. For a moment, Legend half expected the injuries to heal themselves, but instead, rivers of green fluids ran down the creature's legs and coated the streets. As he turned his gaze back to the warring beasts he realized what was happening.

For all his power, it appeared that Nilbog could only focus on one part of the body at a time. Right now, he seemed to be focused on making sure that his precious pet's neck wasn't torn to shreds. Which meant that any damage they did now would stay until Nilbog's attention wasn't taken up by the rampaging dragon on his creature's face.

Unfortunately, their victory was short-lived as the goblin pushed its talons against the ground and threw itself backwards. Legend watched on, equal parts awed and terrified as the goblin lifted not only its own weight but the weight of its enemy into the open air. Their two forms cast a black shadow over the battleground as they threatened to crush everyone and everything underneath them as the goblin tried to throw its enemy from its back. But even as they started to fall backwards Alexandria shot forward like a speeding bullet and smashed into the goblin's back with more strength than a freight train.

The goblin wailed once more as scale and spine shattered underneath her fists. Not only that, but her attack managed to completely halt the backward momentum of the creature, forcing it to careen forwards. Buildings crumbled and Spartoi were crushed underneath their weight even as they kept fighting.

It was almost breathtaking to watch, almost like something out of a fantasy movie. The two beasts fought with an unparalleled ferocity as flesh was torn from bone and armor cracked. The dragon wailed as the goblin shredded one of its wings, but it retaliated by mutilating one of the goblin's eyes.

With a great roar, the goblin finally threw the dragon off its back. The dragon smashed into a handful of buildings, smashing them underneath its weight. The dragon moved to reorient itself, but the goblin was already moving in for the kill. It might have even made it if a pair of elephants didn't smash into its legs.

The goblin howled as it was thrown off balance once more and crashed into the ground. But even as the heroes took advantage of the situation to do some damage, Legend could already see that Nilbog had taken the time to heal some of the creature more serious wounds. A patchwork of flesh covered the creature's exposed facial bone even as a new layer of armor covered its legs. Even so, Legend could see that the healing wasn't perfect. What had once been a flawless repair was now covered in bumps and marks as the bio manipulator tried to focus on half a dozen injuries at once.

"Nilbog's tiring," Legend said over the radio as he fired enough lasers to decimate a tank battalion. "If we keep this up we can exhaust him." He wasn't entirely sure if that was an accurate assessment of the situation, but appeared to do wonders for the parahumans on the ground. Attacks were unleashed with a new ferocity as they tried to inflict as much damage onto the beast as they could.

Even as the goblin dispatched the two elephants that had caused it so much trouble it found itself face to face with its opponent once more. While a short-lived victory, the elephants' sacrifice had bought the dragon Spartoi enough time to get itself back on its feet. But even then, Legend could see that not all was well.

Numerous wounds along the dragon's belly leaked black fluids onto the ground, and more than a few pieces of armor had been torn off in the fight. To top it all off, one of the dragon's red membrane wings had been utterly shredded by the goblin, leaving the creature grounded and negating one of its biggest advantages. The goblin let loose a victorious howl as it moved to slay the beast that had hurt it so, but even then, the dragon proved to have a few tricks left.

The dragon's maw opened, but instead of a wailing challenge, a thick concentrated stream of black fluid struck the goblin's face. The goblin howled as flesh and bone sizzled underneath the toxic fluids that now coated its head. The heroes below didn't even wait for Legend signal as they fired a concentrated volley at the beast's hind legs. The two limbs were stripped down to the bone and beyond underneath the force of the various powers. Even some of the more melee-oriented heroes moved in to assist as a red blur carved trenches down to the goblin's bone.

The goblin screamed in agony once more as its hind limbs collapsed underneath its own weight. Legend could see that Nilbog was still trying to repair the damage done to the beast's head, but it was a losing fight at best. Any trace of flesh that still remained was washed aside by the toxic sludge that now coated its form.

The dragon rushed forward and slammed its elongated hand into the goblin's ruined head. Though it looked weak and spindly, it proved to possess a deceptive strength as the goblin's head was set crashing to the ground, dazed by the blow. Before the goblin could even consider trying to get back up the dragon wrapped its powerful claws around the beast's neck and pinned it to the ground. The goblin tried to resist, but without any leverage, it might have well been a bug pinned to a wall. The dragon opened its maw and locked its jaws around the goblin's exposed throat once more. This time, however, it pulled and tore, ripping flesh from the creature as easily as a hot knife through butter. The goblin wailed once more, but the dragon remained unrelenting it's attack as it continued to tear flesh from the creature's form and toss it to the side. Smaller Spartoi joined in the fray, clawing over the goblin's form like ants as they assisted their much larger brethren.

Finally, after a sickening display of gore and blood, the goblin dragon let out one last shuttering breath through a ruined throat before collapsing to the ground. Legend watched as the last twitches faded from the beast's form as death's embrace finally claimed it. Some small part of Legend couldn't help but feel sorry for it. Nilbog had brought it into this world for the sole purpose of fighting and killing. He had given it life and thrown it to the wolves in a desperate attempt to save his own skin. Could a newborn child really be to blame for its creator's actions?

The larger part of him knew that it was a necessary measure. Any creature that Nilbog made could have a devastating impact on the world and would prove to be a grave threat unless dealt with. As much as he wanted it to, he knew that idealism wasn't going to be the answer here.

As the Spartoi dragon's blood soaked head rose from the carcass of its dead opponent Legend half expected the creature to let loose a triumphant wail to the heavens. But instead, it turned its attention towards a chunk of flesh that it had torn from the goblin. As it approached the mass of still bleeding flesh more of its smaller kind joined in, encircling the mass. Legend could feel a chill got up his spine as the mass started to move and writhe. With a sickening sound, a man collapsed out of the chunk even as his body emptied its stomach contents.

Legend couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face at the sight of Nilbog, a madman on par with the Slaughterhouse 9, brought low by some motion sickness. Still, this wasn't the time for idle amusement.

"I want containment on him _now_ ," Alexandria ground out over the radio with and unmistakable authority. Legend might have been the head of the Protectorate, but when anyone of the Foun- Triumvirate spoke, people listened. Despite the immediate compliance to her orders as several heroes moved in to isolate the man's body, Legend could still see a hint of anger on her face. He supposed it wasn't too surprising, Alexandria had been a strong advocate of simply killing the man. While Legend didn't like killing people, even with kill orders, he understood her desire. Nilbog was a danger so long as he had access to organic mass. If he could get his hands on a _bug_ that would be enough for him to make a plague that would make the black death look like the common cold.

But Watchdog Thinkers had urged them to hold off on his execution until they could figure out if he had made any time bombs in the event of his death. The last thing they needed was for him to kill even more people from beyond the grave. But it hadn't been until Contessa had told them to leave the man alive that Rebecca had finally relented.

It wasn't until a teleporter brought in a containment unit specifically designed to hold Nilbog that Legend let out a sigh of relief. There was still a lot of work to be done, but the worst part of the nightmare was over.

 _Everything was going to be okay._

* * *

 _Nothing was going to be okay._

Annette stared at the monster that had taken her husband and baby girl from her. The monster who had slaughtered an entire town all so he could remake them in his image. That was the kind of evil and malevolence that would be on par with the like of the Slaughterhouse 9 or Heartbreaker. And the English teacher knew that no matter what she did here, there would be nothing that could fix the scar that he had left on her life, on the scar that this monster had left on everyone's lives.

But as she stared into his remorseless eyes, she couldn't help but consider how… human he looked.

He hadn't turned himself in something like his creations, but rather he looked like an everyday person. His brown hair and eyes were utterly forgettable and his face could have been lost in a sea of people. There were no defining traits with his appearance that would have made him stand out before his rampage. They only thing out of place were the facsimiles of a king's clothing that she was fairly certain was made out of human flesh. She briefly wondered why nobody had taken them from him, but she supposed the risk of him managing to get within skin contact of someone would only increase if they tried to strip search him. Even with their biohazard suits, she doubted they would want to risk anything.

Annette had to wonder if it was some cruel irony that Nilbog looked normal whilst she looked like something that wouldn't be out of place as a fairy tale monster. He could put on a change of clothes and be utterly unremarkable within the masses while she would be looked upon with fear.

"Have you come to gloat at the downfall of the King of Creation, Queen of Demons?" Nilbog asked. His voice sounded weak and rusty as if he hadn't spoken to anyone in some time. His eyes kept track of her movements with a coldness that wouldn't have been out of place on one of her Spatori.

"No," she said. The lock beeped in compliance as she typed the code into the panel, sliding the door open with a silent hiss. She stepped into the airlock as the door sealed itself behind her. Annette felt her hair whip around as a Tinker tech chemical was sprayed into the room to neutralize any pathogens that Nilbog might have hidden on his person. Oddly enough Annette couldn't help but be reminded of orange juice as the sweet critic smell of the spray wafted up into her nose. She was forced to repeat the process twice before she was finally granted access to Nilbog's chamber. She had to give it to the PRT when they wanted to quarantine something they quarantined it well.

The floor hummed softly underneath her feet, a result of the small electric charge they were using to keep the floor sterilized. The glass that sealed the mad monsters inside was almost three feet thick. Even one of Nilbog's larger monsters would need some time to break through. A ring of turrets hung overhead, ready to rain hell down on the man if he so much as sneezed the wrong way. The ground underneath them was solid rock with reinforced plating to provide some extra protection against any underground tunneling. Both and onsite and offsite monitoring system were in place to call on parahuman reinforcements in need be.

Nilbog wasn't getting out of this cage anytime soon.

"Then what is it you intend to do, Queen of Demons? Will you end my life as befitting of the conquering invader?" Nilbog asked with a calm expression. But behind that calm facade, Annette could see a flicker of fear in his eyes. He knew his power wouldn't work on her and thus subject to the whims of her mercy. Annette found a small pleasure in the fear she inspired in the man, but it was an empty feeling. It wouldn't bring her family back, nor any of the people he had the misfortune of converting into monsters.

Still, seeing the monster that had caused so much suffering squirm under her gaze brightened her spirits a little bit.

Annette didn't respond to the man's question. Instead, she held out her palm and allowed her creation to scurry up her arm to present itself. It was small, probably less than a few inches long and could be comfortably held in her hand. The beetle-like creature clicked its mandibles together as it stared at the prisoner. Annette could see the flicker of fear in Nilbog's eyes rekindle into an inferno as he tried to edge away from her. But in this glass shell, there was no escape from her.

"I'd tell you I won't enjoy doing this," Annette said as she approached the cowering man. Her words were slow and oddly thoughtful as if she was contemplating what she was about to do. "But that would be a lie."

The beetle leaped from her hand and made a dive for Nilbog's face. In a surprising display of dexterity, the man managed to catch the insect before it reached his face, but his victory was a short-lived one. Black tendrils shot out from the Spatori's underside and weaved through his fingers before latching onto his face. Nilbog screamed as they forced their way under his skin and through his mouth and eyes. Black veins spread across the man's face like a toxic spider web as it maliciously pulsated in the bright light. Trickles of blood ran down the man's face as he tore at his own face like a mad beast. But for all his efforts the parasite continued with its work uninterrupted. Annette simply watched on as the man convulsed on the ground while her creation did its job.

She supposed the Protectorate could have stopped her at any time, but the fact that they hadn't was telling enough. Nilbog let out one last horrible wail before collapsing to the ground like a marionette that had its strings cut. Satisfied that its job was done the parasite recalled its tendrils from Nilbog's body and scurried its way back over to her.

"W-what did you do to me?" Nilbog asked as he tried to pull himself back to his feet. His limbs trembled as his face took on a green sickly hue. The man looked ready to keel over at a moment's notice.

"I stripped you of your powers," Annette said. She watched as Nilbog's expression collapsed in on itself as the realization of what she had done to him struck him.

"You…" Nilbog simply gaped at Annette like a floundering fish. He opened his mouth a few times to speak, but all that came out were a few squeaks. There was a horror in his eyes, the kind of horror that made you question if everything was really happening. It was the feeling of being faced with a truth so ugly and unappealing that you wanted to dig yourself into a dark hole and deny it.

It was a pain that Annette had become very acquainted with over the last few days.

"I could have remade this putrid place!" Nilbog roared as he pushed himself back on his feet, his fear giving way to anger. He tried to tower over her, but given that she was taller than him by about half a head, his attempt only served to highlight how vulnerable he was.

"I could have turned this backwater town into a Garden of Eden! Nobody would have wanted for anything, they would have known no pain or hunger or loneliness. I could have given them a better life," he pleaded desperately. Annette could feel her blood boil with every word that poured out of his mouth. Unaware of the growing danger he was in Nilbog pushed forward in a futile attempt to salvage the situation.

"I would have been their god-URK!"

Nilbog's rant was cut short as Annette wrapped her hand around the man's throat and lifted him a good two inches off the ground. For a moment, Annette said nothing as her crimson eyes glared daggers at the man who had taken everything from her. She raised her other hand into a fist as she pulled it back. Nilbog's eyes widened to almost comical proportions as he redoubled his struggling, but was ultimately futile.

For those few seconds, Annette balanced on the knife's edge as she glared into the man's very soul.

But after a few more heart-stopping moments for Nilbog, Annette allowed the man to fall from her grip like a sack of potatoes. The man that had once been Nilbog stared up at her with fear filled eyes, as if she might decide to kick him while he was down. Instead, she turned around and walked back towards the door.

"You're no god. All you are is a sad little man who's going to be executed for his crimes," Annette said as she waited for the door to slide open and release her. She turned her head around and gave the man one last glare that made him recoil in fear. "You're not worth murdering."

And with that Annette stepped through the now open door, leaving the powerless man to weep at his misfortune.

* * *

A few parahumans and PRT officers had come to offer their thanks or congratulations, but she didn't pay much attention to them. She just gave them a tired smile and asked to be left alone for a time. The smarter ones respected her wishes and backed off. The dumber ones, on the other hand, kept trying to cozy up to her, no doubt in an attempt to earn some goodwill the woman who had assisted in the ending of an S class threat.

She quickly corrected them of their erroneous assumptions.

She just wanted to be left alone for some time to gather her thoughts. Nilbog was defeated, depowered and imprisoned. His goblins were still wreaking havoc on the town, but her Spartoi and their parahuman assistance were performing sweeps of the abandoned buildings to get them all. Without their master to quickly replenish their ranks they would fall eventually. Even with their self-reproduction, they couldn't keep up with the amount of Spartoi that she had now.

 _So now what?_

The thought teased the edge of her mind like a shark circling its prey. She could feel the uncertainty of her future weigh down on her as if it were a physical thing. The desire to see Nilbog pay for his crimes had been what had kept her going, what had made her fight so hard. And now that he was gone and dealt with, what was there for her to do with herself. It wasn't as if she could just go back to teaching.

 _Don't worry, your children will be taught by a woman who can make murder beasts with her mind, but she won't use any on them._ She could only imagine how well that would go over with the parents of her students.

She still wanted to see the heroes that had abandoned her and Ellisburg answer for what they did, but she didn't feel nearly the same level or rage and desire that she had towards Nilbog. Would she just become another fixture of the Bay like the Brockton Bay Brigade? Just another parahuman fighting pointless battles over and over again?

Annette heard the door to her commandeered room swing open with a creak. She was tempted to tell them off to leave her alone, but it wasn't as if she had anything better to do with her time other than brood.

Annette turned around to find herself face to face with one of the tallest women she had ever seen. She knew that she was fairly tall herself, but this woman stood at least a full head higher than her, if not more. The three-foot-long horn that extended from her forehead only served to make her look even taller than that. Instead of a colorful outfit like she had seen most parahumans, the woman's modesty was protected by a series of opaque shimmering crystal-like structures that seemed to be layered on one another like shards of glass.

"Annette Hebert?"

"Yes?" Annette asked as she brought herself to her feet. There was no point in letting herself feel even smaller because she was sitting down. The question itself was more of a formality given her appearance, but it felt somewhat nice not being judged by how she looked.

"My name is Narwhal and I represent the Guild," the woman said as she held out her hand to shake. Annette took it as she racked her brains for recognition of the woman's name. She knew that she had heard it before, but she couldn't quite place where. The shimmer crystals felt oddly smooth in her grip, but that might have been because of how durable her skin was.

"The Guild, that's Canadian, right?" Annette asked, not entirely sure with her answer. She could remember hearing about the Guild during a seminar about parahumans, but that was some time ago and capes had always been Taylor's area of interest.

 _Not anymore_ , the dark voice in the back of her mind whispered.

Narwhal nodded and Annette couldn't help but eye her horn as it shook up and down. "Yes, the Guild was founded with the goal of taking down parahumans that represent a clear and present danger to society and the world."

"Like Nilbog," Annette said as she allowed her lips to curl into a sneer at the thought of the madman. While she usually didn't derive enjoyment from other people's suffering, she hoped that Nilbog would never find peace with himself until his execution.

"Just like Nilbog," Narwhal agreed with a short nod. There was a dark and haunted look in the woman's eyes. It was a gaze that Annette had seen a lot in some of the older Protectorate parahumans. People who had seen the darkness and suffering that the world had to offer, people who knew what it was like to go through hell.

"And you want me you to join you?" Annette asked with no small amount of caution. There had already been a few overtures from various Protectorate members about her joining their ranks. She had quickly dispelled them of the notion. She wasn't going to work for the people that had allowed her baby girl and husband to die at the hands of a madman.

"While I am hoping that you would consider joining our ranks, I understand you have some reservations about joining a hero group," Narwhal said. There wasn't any judgment in her eyes, which Annette greatly appreciated. She didn't need some fool thinking that it was her "duty" to go and fight criminals just because she had gotten powers.

"Just the Protectorate," Annette corrected with a small that might have been a little too vicious if the woman's minute flinch was anything to go by.

"Regardless of your allegiance, I would like to present you with an offer to buy Spartoi from you," Narwhal said, expertly hiding what little discomfort she had been feeling behind a small and friendly smile.

Annette blinked, somewhat surprised by the offer. "I'm sorry?"

Narwhal pursed her lips as if she was thinking of something unpleasant. "Most of the parahumans that the Guild go after are extremely dangerous. Not only to the heroes in question but the surrounding populace. I'm sure you've been familiarized with that happens when parahumans decided they don't care about collateral damage."

Annette narrowed her blood red eyes at the reminder of the hell that she had been facing even before the heroes had come back to "save the day". " _Yes,_ I'm _familiar_ ," she said, not quite hissing, but enough to get her message across.

Narwhal nodded with a grimace, apparently recognizing her misstep. "I believe that your Spartoi could help save more lives if they end up taking damage that might have been inflicted on civilians and heroes."

Annette considered the woman's words. She wasn't exactly one to be overly concerned about money, but with her own employment in question and…Danny, she doubted that she had much in terms of income. They had some money saved away for a rainy day, but it wouldn't last her that long. She also doubted that her mom would jump up to help her given how their last meeting had gone.

But beyond financial concerns, she couldn't help but think of how many lives her creations might save. Of how many Ellisburgs they might prevent. The thought of letting countless Taylors and Cindys go through that hell again was enough to send chills up her spine. The Protectorate wanted to hire her to fight the gangs in her city, but could she really stand aside and allow atrocities of this scale to happen around the world?

Did she really have that much of a choice?

"I understand that this is a difficult decision for you," Narwhal said. "If you want I can-"

"I'll do it."

Narwhal blinked. "Selling Spartoi or joining the Guild?"

"Joining the Guild," Annette clarified. "Give me the paperwork and I'll read through it."

Narwhal nodded slowly as if she was considering her words. "I'll send over a lawyer to help you."

"Thank you," Annette said with a tired smile that she truly felt. She was pretty sure that was the first time since this nightmare had begun that any hero had actually offered her assistance without her prompting. It felt…nice to not be relied on so much, to not be treated like a weapon or a soldier.

The two women exchanged a few more pleasantries before Narwhal was forced to leave to go speak to her Protectorate counterparts. As she shut the door behind her Annette sank back into her seat.

 _Danny, Taylor._ Her eyes didn't allow her to cry anymore, but she could still feel her heart crack at the thought of the two most precious things in the world to her, lost forever. _I-I can't let this happen again. I can't let_ you _happen again._

She couldn't bear the thought of allowing such a travesty to occur again. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she allowed other families to go through the same thing that she had. She needed to be able to make a difference, she needed to _help._

She doubted that the scars from Nilbog's nightmare would ever fade from her or anyone's memory. No matter if he was depowered or not she would be forced to carry his memory with her forever. But she could make a difference. She could make sure that people like Nilbog got what was coming to them, and towns like Ellisburg didn't get destroyed because of a temper tantrum.

 _Look at that Taylor_ , Annette thought with a smile as the image of her baby girl babbling about heroes while she pranced around the room in her Alexandria costume filled her mind.  
 _  
It looks like I'll get to be a hero after all._

* * *

 **Special Thanks to my Patrons:** Velzon, Sphinxes, Sanjay and xxpowerxx1qz


	7. Epilogue - Grim Mother

**Enjoy!**

Epilogue - Grim Mother

9 Years Later - 2010

Annette groaned as the words on the document started to blur together into a jumbled mess. The woman let her hand rest against her cheek as he pure white hair sprawled across her shoulders in a tangled mess. Her crimson eyes darted over the paper in a desperate attempt to decipher its meaning, but trying to figure out PRT paperwork was a task that needed a team of at least ten Thinkers. Various papers were cast out along her desk in a discordant manner in which all logic was lost. The number of forms that she still had to fill out was mindboggling. She wondered if this is why most parahumans became villains, to avoid the paperwork that came with being a hero.

 _Of course, most heroes don't fight A and S class threats on a regular basis,_ she thought with dark amusement.

Joining the Guild all those years ago had been the right decision. Though the PRT and Protectorate had brought the parahumans that had abandoned Ellisburg and their comrades on charges of desertion, it had done little to abate her anger. She had appreciated the gesture, but losing her entire family because of their cowardice wasn't something that she could get over easily. Perhaps she was a little unfair for the parahumans in the Protectorate who actually wanted to do their jobs, but nobody ever said feelings had to be fair.

No, joining the Guild had been and still was the right choice. Even if she had to deal with Vanessa's constant nagging to join her gaming sessions. She had wondered on more than one occasion what the world might think if they knew that Narwhal, the woman who had completely reorganized the Guild from the ground up and made it into the force that it was today was a huge gaming nerd.

After a few more futile minutes of trying to read through the dozenth document, she decided to just sign it anyway. A little foolhardy, but the Guild wouldn't have let the paperwork be released to her if they thought the PRT was trying anything untoward with her. And if they were she would just remind them _why_ she the one that helped make the Guild one of the most successful records of fighting S class threats.

Though mind boggling boring, this paperwork was what allowed her to work in the US given that she was an employee of a Canadian organization. It wasn't as if the PRT was trying to stymie her efforts, but having a Master 9 running around in their backyard, even if it was to kill S class threats, that wasn't under their authority didn't fill anyone with confidence.

She could understand their reasoning even if it proved to be frustrating at times. The fact that they had not only let her stay in Brockton Bay but allowed her a rather sizable portion of land a few miles outside the city to grow Spatori showed that they were trying to put their best foot forward in the relationship. Or at the very least Director Renick was.

She was sure part of that land grant had been approved because of her decimation of the Empire's ranks when they came recruiting for her. A mistake that Allfather and Kaiser didn't live to regret.

She knew that quite a few people in the city were still upset that she hadn't taken a more active role in fighting the gangs, but that wasn't her fight. For all the horrors that the gangs committed over the years (and commit them they did), they were utterly paltry compared to the ones she had borne witness to in her career. At the very least their crimes made _sense_. People were greedy and wanted power and money for themselves. They wanted to better their future and were willing to do anything to do it, even if it meant breaking the law.

Other people weren't so rational. Some didn't want worldly possessions and couldn't be negotiated or threatened into submission. Some people just wanted to watch the world burn.

Monsters didn't just live in stories.

Realizing that she wasn't going to get any more work done now that her mind had gone off on a tangent, Annette pulled herself away from her desk to stretch her legs. She really didn't get cramps of being seated ever since her transformation, but she appreciated the humanity of the act. It kept her grounded to the people around her, it kept her human. If she had let herself fall into that pit of disconnect that she has seen in so many monsters over the years, well, one Nilbog had been enough.

As she made her way to the kitchen the sound of the front door opening and closing caught her attention. The old creaking hinge was something that she couldn't bring herself to fix or replace. Danny had been the one to fix it, claiming that they didn't need to hire a repairman only for the noise to actually end up being worse than before. It was something that had brought her much amusement that she teased her husband over before well….

Pushing back that particular line of thinking Annette moved to greet her adopted daughter. As she turned around the corner she could feel an amused grin tug at her mouth at the sight of her somewhat overburdened child. "I see Victoria kept you on your toes."

Though her adopted daughter would always refuse to acknowledge it, the squeaks that she made when she was startled or surprised were absolutely adorable. Her face flushed such a deep red from her embarrassment that for a moment Annette wondered is her hair might spontaneously combust, even without assistance from her powers.

"Mom," Cindy whined as she struggled to hold the ten bags in hand. It was almost amusing to watch as the young woman struggled to hold all of her merchandise. As her adopted daughter's amber eyes glowed with mercy Annette decided to take pity on her.

"Here, let me help you," she said as she grabbed most of the bags. With her enhanced strength, they were virtually weightless anyway. Cindy's shoulders sagged in relief as her aching hands were finally freed from their imprisonment.

"Thank you," she said with such gratitude that it made it seem like she had come home from a war. Using her now free hand she swept aside a few strands of black hair out of her amber eye. "Victoria's a good friend and all, but she really doesn't understand the concept of 'moderation'."

Annette hummed in amusement as she placed the bags on the couch. "I seem to remember someone trying _every_ costume idea that came to their head."

Cindy flushed red again with an indignant scowl, her lips pursing with distaste. "Those were important expenditures!"

Annette raised an eyebrow at her daughter's outburst. "I seem to remember one having nothing but bandages over your chest."

That particular costume had gone in the trash where it belonged. No daughter of hers was going to be caught wearing something like that, no matter how much they pleaded. It was already bad enough with the fanboys on the internet. She was fairly certain that more "official Cinder" panties had been sold on eBay than she had ever even bought for her adopted daughter. She didn't need to add even more fuel to the fire.

"…It was cute," Cindy offered with a sheepish smile.

Annette rolled her eyes at her daughter's defense, but she took on a much more serious tone as Cindy moved to put her new clothes away. "I'm going to be gone for a week or so. You'll probably have to end up staying with the Dallons again."

"Who are you going after?" Cindy asked, a small amount of trepidation entering her voice. Even after years of watching her mother fight monsters that would make most men run away screaming there was always a certain element of dread of having her leave. It wasn't like she was even anywhere near the actual fighting, but it was sill nerve wracking to know that she was willingly fighting such monsters.

"Slaughterhouse," Annette said with a sneer. For all of the group's posturing, they were nothing more than a pack of killers with a little more power than most. They were the lowest of the low, reveling in the suffering of others to distract themselves from their own pain and woes.

 _Pathetic._

Cindy could feel a chill go down her spine at those words. Though they were far from the level of power that they had been back in their heyday, they were still the boogeyman of the parahuman community for a reason. They were monsters that even other monsters trembled at. Though their name was still officially the Slaughterhouse 9, it was rare for anyone to call them that anymore. The group hadn't had a full roster since 2008, with only the wiliest and strongest psychos surviving. Though from what she had heard a new member had recently joined their group, a case 53 with a scorpion tail and a penchant for ripping people to shreds.

"Y-you'll be okay, right?" Cindy asked in a voice that she hoped didn't sound childish. She was one of the most powerful pyrokinetics in the region, not some baby who needed their parents to take care of the monsters in the closet. Her mother had gone on dozens of these trips before without incident and was one of the most power Master capes on the planet. There was absolutely no reason for her to be afraid of her leaving.

And yet she still couldn't fight back that cold chill of the idea of Annette fighting the Slaughterhouse. They had a tendency to turn people into monsters, just like how they had tried to do so to poor Riley.

It had only been sheer luck on the Guild's part that they had managed to catch the Slaughterhouse unaware and ambush them a few hours after Riley's trigger. The rescue of a forcefully recruited six-year-old child had been an unexpected surprise, but it was a far better alternative than what Jack would have had in store for the girl.

The fact that Riley had latched onto Annette as a mother figure just as she had only solidified her nickname as _Grim Mother_ with the Guild grunts. Given her track record of having children from parahuman, disasters latch onto her as a mother figure the name wasn't entirely unfounded, but it still didn't stop bringing up painful memories. Cindy knew that her mother claimed that the name didn't bother her, but she had caught her adoptive mom fiddling with her locket more than a few times after being called that. Even her inhuman eyes couldn't hide her sadness and pain when she looked into that locket.

Annette only smiled and pulled her adopted daughter into a hug. Though her mother's body didn't emit any heat she had to admit she had pretty warms hugs. It felt like a blanket of safety rolling over her shoulders.

"I'll be fine," she said quietly as if the slightest noise might set her daughter off as she gently stroked her hair. "You just worry about that English test on Wednesday and not burning one of Armsmaster's bikes."

Though hidden by her shoulders and sprawling black hair Annette knew that her daughter's face had lit up like a Christmas tree once more. Her sharp hearing managed to pick up her daughter's muffled whisper of, "That only happened _once_."

"Well, let's sure it stays that way," Annette said with an amused twinge to her voice. As funny as Armsmaster's face had been when he found his precious bike as nothing more than a pile of burning slag, the bill that had been sent their way had been far less amusing. It wasn't as if she couldn't pay it off with her salary and the bounties that she had collected over the years, but it hadn't been cheap.

As her daughter pulled away from her embrace, she couldn't quite hide a flash for fear from her. "I'll be in the presence of half a dozen Guild heroes and if, _if_ anything happens to me Riley would be more than capable of patching be up," she added in an attempt to mollify her adopted daughter's fears.

"I know," Cindy said in a clear attempt to end the conversation. Annette could tell that her daughter still had reservations about this, but she knew that she was strong. Despite her meek like behavior at the moment her daughter could be a hellcat when enraged. Very few villains made the mistake of ticking her off twice. Those that did were the ones that had seats reserved for them in the hospitals.

"I'll call you every night," Annette promised. She would have called Cindy every night anyway, but it was best to remind her that she was going to be just fine. She supposed that the irony was that fighting S class threats was easier on her than it was Cindy. At the very least Annette knew what was happening on the ground and all the horrors that were being committed were shoved in her face with the subtly of a sledgehammer, but she knew what was going on.

Her adopted daughter would have to spend every hour of the day wondering if she was safe. She wouldn't know what she was going through and would allow her imagination to run rampant with horrors that were far worse than the reality of the situation.

"Why don't you go put all of this away so we can go out for dinner?" Annette asked as she gestured to the bags littering the couch. It was a little early for dinner, but it would be nice to have a good meal with her daughter before she had to head out. The paperwork would still be waiting for her when she got back, and the health and wellbeing of her daughter were more important. Something nice and relaxing would take her mind off such dark thoughts for the time being.

Cindy said nothing as she nodded in agreement. Annette watched with her crimson eyes as her adopted daughter picked up her clothes to carry them to her room. Her gaze shifted to the locket her fingers were fiddling with as it flicked open. Even after all this time, Annette could still feel her heart clench up at the image within.

It had been taken a few days before they had left, Danny had decided that they needed a more updated family picture. He stood to the side with a grin on his face while Taylor's legs dangled around his shoulders. Her daughter's expression was lit up with a bright smile, unmarred by her missing baby teeth. Annette herself stood to the side, wrapping her arms around her husband's torso with a loving smile. Her skin lacked its now pure white texture and crisscrossing veins that dotted her arms and face.

A breathy sigh shook Annette' throat as she closed the locket. While the picture was one of the few things she had left to remember her family, it proved to be a constant reminder of what she had lost on that day.

 _And what she had gained._

Annette looked up to see Cindy walk down the stair with her purse in hand. Her adopted daughter's heels clicked against the wood floor as she straightened out some wrinkles in her dress. The dress was a bit shorter that she would have liked, but she wasn't going to get into an argument tonight over it. Not when this was meant to be a happy outing.

Nilbog may have taken her family, but he had given her the opportunity to gain a new one. Cindy. Riley. The Guild. They had all helped to heal the hole in her heart just as she tried to do the same with them. They would never replace Danny and Taylor, nothing ever could. Just as she could never replace the people and family that they had lost. But together they helped each other, together they healed and made way for a brighter future.

A future that monsters all around the world were trying to take away. Not only for herself, but for everyone.

 _Never again._

She would make sure that no monster would ever be allowed to repeat what had happened in Ellisburg. That no monster would be able to twist people physically and mentally into the stuff of nightmares. She wouldn't stop until all the monsters were dead and done, just as she hadn't for the past nine years. There was a reason that even A and S class threats were wary of facing her.

They may all be monsters, but she could birth them by the _legion_.

As she made her way to the door Annette allowed her hand to slip into Cindy's and give her a comforting squeeze. Not only for her daughter's sake but for herself. A reminder of why she did what she did, of what she would never allow herself to lose.

Not again.

 _Never again._

* * *

 **I want to thank everyone who took the time to read this story, it feels nice to know that your work is found interesting and liked.**

 **Special Thanks to my Patrons:** Velzon, Sphinxes, Sanjay and xxpowerxx1qz


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